Sure. I didn't arrive at this through reasoning, it's a contingency. I hope I didn't leave anything non-obvious out:
* In most places, you have to afford the school and you need the grades/SAT scores (academic merit).
* In Sweden, you don't need to afford the school: you only need the grades/SAT scores (academic merit).
And that we granted every small education institution with the status of university.
So to sum up: the goal of "free" education is to make higher education available for more people. This will lead to lowering of standards of already existing programs because more will attend (normal distribution of skill) and in the universities self interest a majority will pass because universities is paid per graduated student.
And with a gradual lowering of standards this opens up for unqualified students to attend, especially in combination with government programs.
Ergo academic merits does not matter.
In Swedish Almost anyone can be a teacher http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/nastan-vem-som-helst-kan-bl...
This is now norm on many programs at the Swedish universities.
This link shows statistics for people accepted into higher education for this fall semester: http://statistik.vhs.se
Both in the design of the system and in its actual results, it's clear that academic merit matters more than any other factor.
Politicized is the one that accepts the reality of politics, I don't because I look at result not intent.
What is the academic merits to become a teacher today? Zero?
Edit: Added extra paragraph.