‘Very upsetting.’ Students learn Job Corps programs will be paused nationwide
Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced that the Job Corps program will be paused – mainly due to the cost.
Thousands of students and faculty members belonging to the federal Job Corps program learned this week that all learning centers will shut down in just a few weeks.
“Before I got here, I was actually out on the street. I’ve had nowhere to stay, at one point sleeping under a bridge,” said Tyrone Brown, Jr., a student at the Edison Job Corps campus.
Brown is just one of thousands of people between 16 and 24 years old who enrolled in Job Corps, a place where they can live on campus and learn trades to help them succeed.
“In the bricklaying trade, I have about six to seven months left…Right in the middle of it,” said Brown.
But this week, Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced campuses like Edison’s will pause due to a number of reasons – mainly cost.
According to the Department of Labor, Job Corps operated with huge deficits and these numbers are projected to grow. In addition, a transparency report from April showed an average graduation rate of just 38.6%. And by the time a student graduates, the cost to the taxpayers will be nearly $156,000 per person. Post separation, participants earn on average just shy of $17,000 a year.
“These students don’t have nowhere to go. We have the best students in this country. We produce apprentices and high school diplomas,” said Edison Job Corps Center director Ashton Stripling.
Stripling disputes those national numbers, including close to 15,000 reports of infractions – ranging from sexual assault to drug use and physical violence on campuses.
“Why do they got to be terminated if they got caught with a vape with THC? Why can’t we give them a second or third chance like high school students,” said Stripling.
“I have almost completed my trade and when I found out this news it was a heavy downer. It’s honestly very upsetting, especially the amount of people on this campus who will wind up homeless in the streets all over again,” said Salem Ramos, a student studying medical assistance.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, all Job Corps sites nationwide will pause operations by the end of June.
