This is Socialism?

When I think of school vouchers, I always associate it with Milton Friedman and free markets. And yet where has it taken hold? In "socialist" Europe:

These proposals may seem radical, yet parents in the Netherlands have had the right to demand new schools since 1917, and those in Sweden have been free since 1992 to take their government money to any school that satisfies basic government rules. Such freedoms are wildly popular: in the Netherlands 70% of children are educated in private schools at the taxpayers' expense; in Sweden 10% already are. In both countries state spending on education is lower per head than in Britain, and results are better.

via The Economist