We examine the effects of school choice reforms implemented in the early 1990s in two different settings: Sweden and Milwaukee (WI, U.S.). We show how both the ideological and theoretical arguments for choice reform were similar in the two contexts, yet the consequences in terms of the organizational outcome and institutional sector configuration ended up strikingly dissimilar. While the new group of actors in the Swedish school system consisted primarily of large-scale for-profit schools, with only a minor share of the expansion being catered to by nonprofit actors, the Milwaukee school choice program became dominated by small-scale nonprofit schools operated by religious communities. We seek to explicate these differences by drawing on the welfare state literature and social origins theory, as well as from organizational and historical institutional theory. We argue that the resulting composition of providers is directly related to the deep-seated differences in the civil society regimes operating in the two contexts.

This article aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion on public religion by describing how independent confessional schools were established in Sweden (1795–2019) and by clarifying and deconstructing the dominant ideals that underpin school policy initiatives concerning religion, education, and independent confessional schools. I seek to answer the question: In what way do independent confessional schools appear problematic in relation to general school policy during the period 1795–2019? Employing both descriptive quantitative analysis using register data on independent confessional schools and critical policy analysis inspired by Bacchi’s WPR-approach (‘What’s the Problem Represented to Be’), this study shows that (1) independent confessional schools are not a new or growing phenomenon in Sweden and (2) throughout this study’s focal period, regardless of whether a religious or secular foundation was ascribed to Sweden’s public school system, independent confessional schools were perceived to deviate from public schools’ principal values.

This paper utilizes the literature on liability of newness and smallness to examine new nonprofit school venture creation and explore what challenges new school ventures face. We ask the following researchquestions: What challenges and obstacles do new nonprofit school ventures face? How do new nonprofit school ventures manage to maneuver, mitigate, or overcome these challenges and obstacles? To answer these questions, we conducted a comparative case studyof three nonprofit organizations operating schools in Sweden. Our material consisted of semi-structured interviews and archival documents. The article illuminates two salient challenges for new school ventures: the need for legitimacy from a diverse set of stakeholders and the marshalling of sufficient resources. To cope with these challenges, the organizations combined an outward conformist strategy with an inward resource replacement strategy. Moreover, even though all ventures experienced obstacles, thecharacter and magnitude of these obstacles differed depending on their mode of emergence.