Another decision has been made by the Trump administration that has negatively affected the lives of the nation’s most vulnerable: young people. Americans ages 16-24 who made the right decision to pursue education and job training instead of falling into the trap of the criminal justice system are now being told to pack up and pick up the pieces.
The Trump administration has ordered the U.S. Department of Labor to close, or what they call “begin a phased pause in operations at contractor-operated” Job Corps centers nationwide. The D.C.-based Potomac Job Corps located at Blue Plains in Southwest is among the 99 centers that will close effective June 30.
In a press release issued by the Department of Labor last week, Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemar cited budget concerns and “the program is no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve” as reasons for the “pause.”
The Job Corps was established in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson under the Economic Opportunity Act and his War on Poverty. To date, more than two million young people have grown through Job Corps training, with 25,000 students currently receiving support. The two-year residential program offers students – males and females – the opportunity to earn a GED or high school diploma, vocational training in areas of construction, health care, culinary arts, and more.
Upon graduation, students receive assistance in securing employment in fields or careers for which they have been trained.
When the doors close at the Potomac Job Corp, as well as the other centers nationwide, students will pack up their belongings and be sent home.
For many of them, they will return to an environment from which they and their parents wanted them to escape – where the opportunities were absent, and the criminal justice system awaits them.
Job Corps has been a successful alternative for so many young people who needed greater support, even at taxpayer expense.
This was not a smart decision by the Trump administration for a program that should have been promoted and not “paused.”