The objective of the study was to document and analyze the justifications given by federal institutions of the United States for governmental control of mathematics education as function of the achievement gaps (AGs) in mathematics. We wanted to shed light on the discourses made in the public arena that have legitimized this control and firmly established in the national conscience that the knowledge of mathematics is essential to the prosperity and survival of the nation. The research question can be briefly stated as "what insights and understandings of the national education policy discourse on the achievement gaps in mathematics does Foucault's (2009) governmentality offer?" [For the complete proceedings, see ED597799.]