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This paper will critically analyze the degree to which the Ontario government, led by then Premier Mike Harris, embarked on a neoliberal agenda that led to a crisis in Ontario’s educational system. The period from 1995-2000 was one of the most contentious in Ontario’s educational history, and two pieces of legislation, The College of Teachers Act (Bill 31) and the Education Quality Improvement Act (Bill 160), pitted teacher unions, in particular, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA), against the Harris government. Bill 160 led to a ten-day protest by teachers across Ontario, which signaled a dramatic shift in teacher and state relations that marked a crisis period in Ontario’s educational sector.

Education policy affects communities across Canada. Changes in demographics, enrolment patterns, and pressures on education budgets have put school closures on the political agenda in many provinces. Implementing these policies is increasingly contested and conflict‐ridden. Public administrators are at the cross‐hairs of implementing evidence‐based policies, based on authentic stakeholder input and engagement. This article examines two cases of school closure policy implementation in Ontario to illustrate the tension between these two important dimensions of public administration and challenges that must be overcome in this and other policy areas where evidence and engagement are increasingly important.

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