Ohio’s Next Governor Must Restore the Promise of College Tuition Waivers for Foster Youth

For immediate release

COLUMBUS, Ohio — August 17, 2026 — American Foster Futures, a national organization fighting for the educational future of young people who have experienced foster care, today put both candidates for Ohio governor on notice: the state’s foster youth deserve a real pathway to college, not another watered-down promise.

In 2025, bipartisan legislation known as the Fostering School Success Act was introduced with a clear primary purpose—to create meaningful college tuition and fee support for Ohio foster youth through a Foster-to-College Scholarship Program. That core promise was stripped in committee. The bill that ultimately advanced focused instead on K–12 education liaisons and navigators, leaving the higher-education barrier largely unaddressed.

“Ohio ranks near the bottom nationally in outcomes for older youth leaving foster care. Without a real tuition and fee waiver, too many of these young people face homelessness, unemployment, and a lifetime of lost opportunity. The original vision of the 2025 legislation must be restored—and the next governor must lead that fight.”

National data show that roughly 23,000 young people age out of foster care each year in the United States. One in five experience homelessness after leaving care. Foster youth are twice as likely to be incarcerated or drop out of college. Education is one of the strongest protective factors against these outcomes. States including Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Virginia already prohibit public colleges from charging tuition to eligible former foster youth. Ohio does not.

Benavides, who spent years in multiple foster homes and high-security facilities, experienced homelessness as a runaway, and was emancipated at 17, used Texas’s foster care tuition waiver to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of North Texas and is completing a Master of Public Administration. He now leads a national campaign to expand Texas-style tuition waivers and create reciprocity so a waiver earned in one state can open doors in another.

“We are not asking for charity. We are asking for the same second chance that transformed my life. Both candidates for governor of Ohio now have an opportunity—and a responsibility—to tell the public, clearly and without caveats, whether they will champion full college tuition and fee waivers for foster youth. Ohio’s young people who have already survived the system should not have to survive college debt and closed doors as well.”

American Foster Futures calls on both campaigns to issue public statements within the coming weeks supporting restoration of robust postsecondary financial support for foster youth—whether through a restored scholarship program with meaningful funding or a true tuition-and-fee waiver modeled on successful programs in other states. The organization is prepared to meet with either campaign to discuss policy details and the possibility of a formal endorsement.

Ohio voters will decide who leads the state next. Foster youth cannot wait another election cycle for adults to keep their word.

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