The paper provides a review of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education policy research completed thus far and continues by calling for STEM analysis that understands policy processes as governance rather than government. Instead of a fixed and easily locatable governmental structure by which one can analyze the nature of governing, governance is comprised of an always-shifting topological manifold. Using such theory, STEM education policy must be analyzed for its context and text. Using such analysis could suggest that the current policy directives in STEM education, including those laid out in the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, are more related to an increase in the application of market logics to education "rather than" supportive of specific actions related to STEM teaching and learning.