HECC outlines statewide coordinating role, $4.1 billion biennial budget and Future Ready Oregon progress

Ben Cannon, executive director of Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission, told the House Committee on Higher Education and Workforce Development on Jan. 23 that the commission serves as the state’s coordinating board for postsecondary education and workforce development and administers the bulk of the state’s higher education budget.

“We are the statewide, coordinating board, governor appointed, senate confirmed,” Cannon said. “We administer the state budget for higher education and workforce. That’s approximately a $4,100,000,000 budget during the current 2023–25 biennium.”

The commission’s duties, Cannon said, include setting a strategic vision, advising state leaders, establishing funding distribution methodologies for community colleges and public universities, administering state financial aid and workforce programs, and collecting data and analysis for the legislature. He told the committee the commission uses a broad definition of “higher education”…