Education reforms are rarely successful or free of controversies. However, efforts to STEM-ify public education in the USA by positioning education in STEM fields and training of future workforce as the central purposes of public schooling is proving to be remarkably successful and devoid of contention. This paper explains the success of STEM-ification of public education in the USA by examining these reform efforts from the perspective of depoliticization. With special reference to the implementation of STEM reforms in the state of Georgia, USA, we analyze STEM reforms as a case of network governance to elaborate its features that contribute to its depoliticization. Then, we examine these reforms as a case where we see three concurrent modes of depoliticization—governmental, societal, and discursive. Our analysis presents the depoliticization of STEM reforms in the USA as an example of governance techniques in the current times that legitimize neoliberalism as the dominant political rationality with profound implications for the diminution of democratic space and perpetuation of injustices of misrepresentation in advanced societies. The paper ends with an appeal for repoliticization of STEM reforms and sustained attention to this issue among educators and researchers.

教育改革很少成功或没有争议。然而，STEM 化的努力通过将 STEM 领域的教育和未来劳动力培训定位为公立学校教育的核心目的，美国的公共教育被证明是非常成功且没有争议的。本文从去政治化的角度审视这些改革努力，解释了美国公共教育 STEM 化的成功。特别参考美国乔治亚州 STEM 改革的实施，我们将 STEM 改革作为网络治理的一个案例进行分析，阐述其有助于其去政治化的特征。然后，我们将这些改革作为我们看到三种同时发生的去政治化模式——政府、社会和话语——的一个案例。我们的分析将美国 STEM 改革的去政治化作为当前治理技术的一个例子，这些技术使新自由主义合法化为主要的政治理性，对民主空间的缩小和发达社会中的不公正不公正的持续存在有着深远的影响。论文最后呼吁将 STEM 改革重新政治化，并呼吁教育工作者和研究人员持续关注这一问题。