It’s too soon to know how the effort to reform the system of government subsidies to Middle East Studies programs (Title VI of the Higher Education Act) is going to fare in the new congress. (For background on that battle, see “Studying Title VI.”) What we do know is that a government committee appointed to review Title VI subsidies is about to issue a report. I’ve been skeptical about that committee, given that it was the brain child of the higher education lobby. No doubt the advocates who dreamed up this committee are hoping for a report that will allow them to dismiss the need for reform. But maybe–just maybe–we’ll get something better than that. Martin Kramer, the scholar who stirred up the movement for reform by publishing Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America has more to say about the committee and its upcoming report at his blog, Sandstorm. He also posts the personal statement he delivered to the committee investigating Title VI.