The Arkansas government recognized that students in their state were not finding easy ways to receive financial aid. The Department of Higher Education saw a...
Author - Sen Shane. Broadway
Sen. Shane Broadway is the interim director for the Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE) and has been with the agency since January 2011. Broadway is a member of Gov. Mike Beebe’s full cabinet as well as the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet, an appointed group of state government leaders charged with creating 21st Century jobs and skilled workers.
Broadway’s primary responsibility is oversight of staff whose jobs are to carry out the policy directives of the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board (AHECB) and to develop funding recommendations for the state’s 11 public universities and 22 public two-year colleges as well as several other post-secondary entities. In addition, the agency is responsible for distributing approximately $170 million annually from state revenues and lottery funds intended to ease the financial burden of students seeking an education beyond high school.
An Arkansas State University alumnus, Broadway served three terms as a representative for Pulaski and Saline Counties, and two terms in the senate. He was elected speaker of the house by his colleagues in 2001.
While serving in the General Assembly, Broadway was at the forefront of the legislature’s push to continue improving Arkansas’s educational system, serving on the education committee every term except as speaker of the house in 2001. Creating economic development opportunities to bring jobs to the state has been another focus of Sen. Broadway’s efforts, both as a legislator and as a private consultant.
He previously served as chairman of the 15-state Southern Legislative Conference (SLC) – which fosters intergovernmental cooperation among member states – and as chairman of the SLC’s Education Committee. Beebe appointed Broadway to the advisory board of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) in 2007.
