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Big Brothers Big Sisters warns TANF cut will leave more than 1,000 Ohio children without mentors
Summary
Stephanie Hightower of Big Brothers Big Sisters told the Senate Finance Committee that recent budget changes remove the TANF line that provided $1 million per fiscal year, jeopardizing over 500 new mentoring matches annually and leaving more than 2,000 children statewide on waiting lists.
Stephanie Hightower, representing Big Brothers Big Sisters in Central Ohio, told the Senate Finance Committee that the organization’s TANF funding was cut from the House and then removed entirely by the Senate, and that loss would sharply reduce mentoring capacity statewide. "Without these dollars, over a thousand children statewide go without a mentor over the next 2 years," Hightower said, adding that the program had produced more than 500 new mentoring relationships annually under the prior appropriation.
Nut graf: The testimony came during the committee's twelfth hearing on substitute House Bill 96 and focused on a TANF-funded line that historically allocated $1,000,000 per fiscal year to Big Brothers Big Sisters statewide. Supporters told senators the funding expands mentoring relationships that the group says improve educational and life outcomes and connect families to other services; proponents urged restoration of the appropriation in the omnibus amendment.
Hightower said Big Brothers Big Sisters serves about 6,000 children across Ohio and maintains a statewide waiting list of more than 2,000 children. "We have over 2,000 kids that are on waiting lists across the state of Ohio," she told members, while adding that the DeWine administration’s executive budget proposed restoring $1 million per fiscal year but the House halved TANF and the Senate later removed the funding entirely.
Committee members asked whether the group would collapse without state funds and Hightower replied it would not shutter but would be unable to reach needed capacity. "The program would not be able to reach the capacity that we need in order to respond to the need today for young people," she said.
Supporters cited research linking mentoring to higher college attendance and earnings and asked senators to view the appropriation as an investment rather than a charity request. No committee vote or formal action on the line item was recorded during this hearing; the organization requested that senators restore the TANF line in the final budget negotiations.
Ending: The organization urged the Senate to reinstate the $1 million per fiscal year line so it can continue to expand mentoring relationships and reduce the statewide waiting list.
