Luleå is the fourth municipality in the country where a new office is established to improve dialogues with the principals of schools and increase the quality of teaching and results.
On Wednesday, there was an opening with balloons, celebratory speeches and mingling.
"A lump in my stomach"
But the problem is that the allocation for the regional investment, SEK 61 million per year, has been included in the government's budget, which was decided on the same day.
- It is cynical to do it on the same day as the Luleå office was inaugurated and wrong in the long term.
A business must have funding to survive, and it's clear that I'm happy about the Swedish School Board's new office, but I feel a lump in my stomach about the future.
The risk is that the office may close in record time, says Riksdag member Linus Sköld (S) from Älvsbyn, who sits on the education committee.
Pausing expansions
The head of the National Education Agency, Kjell Hedwall, confirms that the grant has been withdrawn.
- The money that the school board was promised is not left in the budget for next year, so we will not start any new offices next year, but we have no plans to close down in Luleå.
We continue the work with dialogues with the school principals and work for funding, he says.
That the grant is withdrawn means that planned development and operations will be paused in Umeå, Gävle, Växjö, Örebro, Gothenburg and Linköping.
SVT Nyheter Norrbotten seeks Fredrik Malm (L), chairman of the education committee, for a comment.