Job Corps Students Quitting as Providers Fight Program Cuts

When the Trump administration moved to pause operations of the Job Corps program earlier this month, 23-year-old Rafe Jones decided it was time to leave the training center in Clearfield, Utah.

It would mean he’d be considered a dropout just two classes shy of completing a Toyota automotive technician training program, Jones was told.

“We’ll just wipe you out of the system,” said Jamie Jones, Rafe’s mother, recounting what Utah Job Corps staffers told her son. “Your transcripts won’t be available, or anything.”

Job Corps students like Jones and contractors that run the program are trapped in the center of a legal battle over the US Labor Department’s push to close the training program for low-income and at-risk young adults. Some are exiting and others, like Jones, don’t want to end up with nothing.

A federal judge last week temporarily blocked the administration from winding down operations at Job Corps facilities nationwide. If enough students and staff walk away it could undermine the fight to keep it alive, leaving Job Corps without people to train.

It’s a prime example of how the Trump administration can achieve cuts to government programs even during courtroom setbacks. Those that work with the Job Corps program say its potential closure would cut off a training pipeline for high-skill trades like manufacturing, nursing, and automotive.

“The Department of Labor is working closely with the Department of Justice to evaluate and comply with the temporary restraining order,” DOL spokesperson Courtney Parella said.

Even the threat of closure has pushed vulnerable people out of the program and onto public benefits like housing assistance and unemployment, those who help operate Job Corps centers in three different states say.

“A few have opted to leave to couch surf or make other arrangements because they just are afraid of what might happen and they don’t want to stick around,” said Jeannie Hebert, president & CEO of Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce, which works with Job Corps centers in Massachusetts. “It’s been a terrible experience and heartbreaking to say the least.”

Pausing Operations

The DOL told training programs to shut down by the end of June, citing high costs, poor performance, and safety issues in the program that offers housing, meals, and skills training for roughly 30,000 young adults.

Program staff have been scrambling to help students figure out what to do next.

Some are considering joining the military, counselors for the program say, while others are being connected to shelters and public assistance programs. More than 3,500 Job Corps students were previously homeless or in foster care, according to the most recent data available from the DOL.

“Many of them really wanted to continue their education and their training, so they feel like they’re losing out on the dream,” said Megan Padilla-Hart, who works at the center in Springdale, Ore.

“It really has disrupted a lot of these young people’s career plans and overall, their lives,” she said.

Students are receiving mixed messages about what’s next: some were told not to leave the training facilities or else lose out on their accreditation and ability to potentially return. During the pause, some students are still receiving instruction, while others aren’t, and some Job Corps staffers have already left.

“Half of these students in their head are saying, am I doing this for training or is this going to be shut down?” Rafe Jones said of the current morale in Clearfield.

The move to shutter the program prompted a lawsuit and bipartisan concern from Congress. Some 199 lawmakers pressed the administration to preserve the program in a June 5 letter, noting Job Corps is funded through September.

Unions as well as those who operate Job Corps centers, said in their June 3 lawsuit the decision could be “disastrous” for the people who rely on the program.

Job Corps this past year served low-income 29,590 individuals, according to data from the DOL. Of those, 13,714 were Black, 10,380 were disabled, 10,321 were women, and nearly all were considered “English Language Learners, Individuals With Low Levels of Literacy or Facing Substantial Cultural Barriers.”

“In some ways, we’re considered the last stop for a lot of students trying to get their education and their training,” said Padilla-Hart.

Job Corps Performance

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the decision to freeze the $1.5 billion Job Corps program came after an internal review that found the average cost per student was more than $80,000 annually.

Graduates of the program earned on average just $16,695 a year, and there were nearly 15,000 serious incidents reported in the program in 2023, including drug use, violence, and sexual assault, according to the analysis.

Rafe Jones said he’s happy the program was being shut down. Instructors at the Clearfield center would belittle students and the dorms where he lives don’t have clean water, he said.

“Stay away,” Jones said. “It’s not worth it.”

But, Democratic lawmakers and the National Job Corps Association, one of the groups involved in the lawsuit challenging the legality of the closures, claim the analysis was conducted by the Department of Government Efficiency staffers at the DOL and was biased towards failure.

Three counselors who work with Job Corps Centers also say the report included inflated metrics that don’t accurately represent the experience of students.

The figures factored in students who went on to college or the military, likely dragging down the average earnings of graduates, according to the Job Corps Association. And the “serious” incidents reported by the DOL included issues like “power outages and inclement weather,” and adult students “leaving campus without prior approval,” the association said.

Padilla-Hart said she has not seen the level of violence described in the report. “And I don’t believe that that is common of majority of the centers,” she added. “I actually have students who have said to me, this is the safest place I’ve ever been.”