HECC tells Oregon legislature state financial aid is stretched as student costs rise

The Education Subcommittee held an informational hearing on Senate Bill 5525 on April 2, 2025, where Ben Cannon, executive director of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, and Juan Baez Herbalo, director of the HECC Office of Student Access and Completion, outlined demand pressures on Oregon state financial aid programs and the agency’s budget requests.

Cannon told the committee that “affordability is really a multi dimensional problem,” and said HECC will focus on grant programs that reduce what students must borrow or cover out of pocket. He and Juan described the effects of the federal shift from the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) to the Student Aid Index (SAI) on applicants and awards, and how that change expanded the pool of students eligible for maximum federal and state need-based aid this year.

The Oregon Opportunity Grant, HECC’s largest state aid program, was authorized for about 61,000 students this academic year, with roughly 39,000 enrolled and using the award so far, Juan Baez Herbalo said. HECC reported that the SAI recalculation and higher full-time enrollment pushed Pell recipients in Oregon from about 33,000 to about 46,000 and required the agency to request roughly $3.5 million in additional expenditure limitation to…