But she has not publicly suggested any other methods that could keep the program’s $9 million-plus budget stable long term. Simon has asked why the city has only contributed $600,000 to the program so far, outside of a $2 million initial contributed to provide Say Yes scholarships.ĭianne Downing, Say Yes Cleveland's executive director, said Say Yes and other local partners are working to lobby the state government to again allow Title IV-E funding to be used as the program’s main source of funding. “If public and private stakeholders truly believe Say Yes Cleveland is worth saving, it is time for them to also say ‘yes’ by putting their money where their mouth is, and match the more-than-generous investment made by county taxpayers.”Ĭleveland City Council approved $600,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding to help bridge the roughly $4.3 million gap, and Cuyahoga County Council also approved $1 million of its own ARPA funds.īut some Cleveland City Council members sought accountability on how the funds are being spent, and questioned whether the program is financially viable in the long-term.
“This is the hard truth: Those who sold Say Yes Cleveland overpromised and under-delivered, and they are now refusing to make the difficult decisions needed to ensure the program's long-term viability,” she wrote in her open letter. The Title IV-E funds, though, only covered $110,000 - not the many millions expected - over the life of the program.
Simon said in a phone call that former County Executive Armond Budish’s administration, along with the national Say Yes program, presented “misleading” projections suggesting that federal IV-E funds would reimburse the county for much of its share, leaving the county to cover only about $3.6 million over four years. She said the county was never meant to be the major contributor to the funding of the program. In an “open letter” issued to news media and others Thursday in response to the column, Simon wrote that the county has stepped up. “Tell them you see the hypocrisy of squandering millions of ARPA dollars on a golf course clubhouse in Parma, on dog parks, on the Cleveland Air Show and countless other frivolities, while claiming to have already done too much for kids in Cleveland.”
“Tell them that HHS levy dollars can and should be used to support this life-changing program in Cuyahoga County’s urban core, one of the poorest cities in America,” she wrote. Plain Dealer Columnist Leila Atassi wrote that the county should be stepping back in to fill the gap it created with last year's cut. Some, but not all, of the resulting gap has been covered with portions of the American Rescue Plan Act money allotted to the county and the city of Cleveland. Without that reimbursement, the county had to use money from its Health and Human Services levy.Ĭounty Council voted in October to reduce its funding for the program from $9.25 million to $4.9 million, leading to a shortfall. The program puts a social worker in every Cleveland Metropolitan School District building in an effort to connect struggling students and families with resources in the community.Īs Ideastream Public Media has previously reported, Simon led the charge last year to cut funding for the program after realizing the county had not been reimbursed with federal Title IV-E funds, typically meant to fund foster-care programs. Simon, in response to a column in The Plain Dealer criticizing the county's funding cut, argued that former County Executive Armond Budish's administration and the leadership of the now-defunct national Say Yes program presented “grossly misleading financial projections” to County Council when the Say Yes family support specialist program was presented to it in 2019. That ended last year when council voted to cut funding. The result, said Council member Sunny Simon, was that the county ended up covering much more of the cost than intended for the family support specialist program for Say Yes Cleveland.
A Cuyahoga County Council member said on Thursday that proponents of the Say Yes college scholarship program “overpromised” and “underdelivered” when asking the county to contribute funding for wraparound services in Cleveland.
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