Trump Administration To ‘Pause’ Scandal-Plagued, $2 Billion ‘Job Corps’

The Department of Labor said Thursday that it will “begin a phased pause” of an almost $2 billion federal job training program that has persisted since 1964 despite a dubious record.
The Job Corps houses a mix of runaway teens and 20-something ex-cons in residential campuses, where 16- to 24-year-olds are paid to receive their GED diplomas and training in several trades.
For decades, there has been evidence that monetary incentives have led to fraud, with contractors — who get paid bonuses for recruiting students and for having positive job-placement statistics — cooking the books to misrepresent post-graduation job outcomes, and tolerating criminal behavior on campus to avoid the loss of federal dollars that would come from expulsions.
Contractors, including large for-profit companies, operate 99 of the Job Corps’ 131 facilities, which collectively house 25,000 students. Those contracts were “terminated for convenience” on Thursday, with the contractors beginning to “mobilize students safely to their home of record” by June 30, the Labor Department said. Campuses operated by government entities, such as the Department of Agriculture, are not affected by the pause.
“Job Corps was created to help young adults build a pathway to a better life through education, training, and community,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement. “However, a startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis reveal the program is no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve. We remain committed to ensuring all participants are supported through this transition and connected with the resources they need to succeed as we evaluate the program’s possibilities.”
The Daily Wire reported in April that the Job Corps spends up to $764,000 per graduate, while participants go on to earn $17,000 annually. One-third of students typically simply disappear, one-third are expelled for serious misconduct, and the remaining third graduate.
The Labor Department said it is not eliminating the Job Corps, which only Congress can do, but that finances dictated ending the contracts. It said the program was operating at a $140 million deficit in 2024, and that the Biden administration paused operations at two campuses as a result. The deficit was projected to grow to $213 million in 2025.
It also said the program is “failing students,” with the post-program wages of participants hovering barely above the poverty line, despite an average cost per student higher than Harvard’s.
“Considering only two out of every five participants actually graduate from the program, this is a massive amount of money being spent with little results,” it said in a statement.

Read much, much more at:
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