Brandeis Center Welcomes Guest Blogger Mike Gonzalez

Mike Gonzalez

Mike Gonzalez

LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus is pleased to announce the appearance of foreign policy analyst Mike Gonzalez  as new guest blogger on the  Brandeis Center Blog for a two-week period beginning September 15.  Mr. Gonzalez’s appearance underscores the immediate need to address Title VI funding to universities under the Higher Education Act.

Mr. Gonzalez’ appearance comes as the Brandeis Center prepares to announce release important new work on abuse of Title VI of the Higher Education Act.  The Center will soon release a public policy White Paper on “The Morass of Middle East Studies: Title VI of the Higher Education Act and Federally Funded Area Studies.” The Center is particularly concerned about biased, policized, anti-Israel and anti-American programming at Title VI Centers that violate both the letter and spirit of 2008 congressional reforms. In this light, the Center welcomes the expertise that Gonzalez brings to the subject.
“Mike Gonzalez is an astute analyst of the Higher Education Act and has just written a valuable analysis of Title VI that I think our readers should be aware of.  We look forward to his insights, and we are proud to welcome him to our blog” commented LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus.
Gonzalez, a senior fellow at The Davis Institute for International Studies – The Heritage Foundation’s arm for research and analysis on foreign policy, international relations, global economics, and national security – has a vast array of experience as an international journalist, having reported from Europe, Asia and Latin America.  He served as speechwriter for Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox during the Bush administration before moving to the State Department’s European Bureau, where he wrote speeches and Op-Eds.   Gonzalez, who joined The Heritage Foundation as Vice President of Communications in March 2009, became a senior research fellow in June, 2014.
Gonzalez has published an important recent policy paper, “America Is Ill-Served by Its Government-Funded Area Studies and Foreign Policy Programs.” In this paper, Gonzalez calls for “systematic solutions.”  One “modest but easy step,” he argues, “is to cut off funding for Title VI of the Higher Education Act, which subsidizes area studies centers at universities throughout the country.”  Mr. Gonzalez argues that these programs “have failed in their mandated task of preparing foreign language and regional experts to meet the national defense needs of the United States.”
His book, “A Race for the Future, How Conservatives Can Break the Liberal Monopoly on Hispanic Americans” was published Sept. 2 by Crown Forum.