In a time of increased federal enforcement of United States Education, education legislation has come to define and construct students in specific ways. The narratives of science and efficiency have come to dominate how education is defined and implemented. From explicit manifestations found in curriculum to implicit assumptions working within the most basic ideas about American education, the predominate paradigm of science and efficiency has come to shape students in limiting and dangerous ways. Acknowledgement and appreciation of the existence of diverse interpretations and the very democratic principles upon which the nation was founded are at stake. A close look at United States federal education policy shows a clear trend: the structure and ethos of the market economy have been transposed onto American schools. Included as consequences of this trend are, 1) the institutionalization of science and efficiency as the only valid means of interpreting what schools do and the people who populate them, 2) the invalidation of any inquiry, pedagogy, or course of study that isn't scientific, and 3) the disappearance of humanitarian perspectives from U.S. education. (Contains 5 footnotes.)