Committee reviews transfer of administrator scholarship program to HEC, amends eligibility to focus on experience with diverse populations

The House Committee on Higher Education and Workforce Development held a public hearing March 27 on House Bill 3030, a proposal to transfer administration of an existing administrator scholarship program from the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission (TSPC) to the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HEC).

The bill’s sponsor and HEC staff emphasized the transfer would streamline administration. "This scholarship program has served over 170 students with grants of up to $12,000 per year," Kyle Thomas, Director of Legislative and Policy Affairs for the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, told the committee. Under the bill HEC would adopt the program and manage applications through its centralized scholarship systems, which Thomas said already manage tens of thousands of awards.

An amendment posted with the bill changes eligibility criteria. Instead of making eligibility depend on applicants’ personal characteristics, the Dash 1 amendment would make eligibility depend on candidates’ experience working with diverse student populations. Thomas said the change is intended to reduce legal risk identified in prior equal-protection reviews: "The amendment ... alters the scope and the eligibility for this program so that it will cease to be a program that is targeting diverse educator administrator candidates and becomes a program that serves educator administrator candidates who have experience with diverse populations." He said HEC will design implementation details through public rulemaking in consultation with the Oregon Department of Justice.

Carissa Chanrami of the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators (COSA), which runs a large administrator-preparation program with the University of Oregon, said COSA supports the bill with the Dash 1 amendment and that moving the program to HEC could simplify applications for candidates who already use HEC systems. "HEC is well positioned to administer the scholarship program," Chanrami said, noting HEC manages a centralized scholarship system and currently oversees a large portfolio of awards.

Committee members asked how HEC will assess applicants’ experience under the amended language. Thomas outlined options HEC expects to consider during rulemaking, such as self-attestation and short directed personal statements, and emphasized the agency will balance rigor and administrative capacity. Representative Juncker and other members raised constitutional concerns and cited prior legal challenges to race‑based eligibility; Thomas and witnesses said the amendment was drafted to reduce that risk and that further work with DOJ will shape implementing rules.

No vote was taken; committee members closed the public hearing and the bill will proceed through the committee process with the posted Dash 1 amendment.

The committee also heard that a related transfer for the distinct Teacher Scholars Program (for teachers rather than administrators) will be considered in separate legislation because of relating‑clause constraints.