Ben Cannon, an Oregon middle school Humanities teacher, has also served in his state’s House of Representatives.

Professional educators often make excellent politicians. This is true of Ben Cannon, a former middle school teacher who has also served in the Oregon State House of Representatives.

Ben was born in 1976 in Springfield, Illinois. As a teenager, he graduated from West Linn High School in West Linn, Oregon. That was in 1994. After his graduation, Ben earned his Bachelor’s degree at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. While there, he served as the editor of the college newspaper. In 1999, Ben garnered a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University in England. There he completed courses in Economics, Politics, and Philosophy. He also earned a Master’s degree in Comparative and International Education.

Once he completed his studies, Ben returned to Oregon to accept a position as a Humanities teacher at the Arbor School of Arts and Sciences in Tualatin. Located in Washington County, the Arbor School is a private K-8 institution situated on 21 acres of wooded farm land. The facility also houses the Arbor Center for Teaching, a two-year teacher residency program offering an innovative teaching apprenticeship in a laboratory school setting. Ben taught at the Arbor School from 2003 to 2011, a period of eight years.

In 2006, Ben was elected on the Democratic ticket to the first of three terms he served in the Oregon House of Representatives. He represented the 46th District. Before completing his third term, however, Ben gave up his seat to accept a position as the Education Policy Adviser to Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber. He left that position in 2013 when he was appointed to lead the state’s newly created Higher Education Coordinating Commission. In this capacity, Ben oversees state funding allocations, policy-setting, and coordination for the state’s higher education system. 

During the time Ben worked in these political positions, the former teacher worked to secure Oregon’s waiver from the No Child Left Behind laws. He also overhauled Oregon’s system of higher education.

To learn more about Ben, see his website at this link: The Evolllution.