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.

Job Corps critics have long pointed out that GEDs and vocational training are available for free in most locations through public school systems and unions, and that many people who signed up for Job Corps were simply looking for a $1,200 stipend and free room and board. The Department of Labor said it will cover costs for students to return home, and connect them with other existing job and training opportunities.

The department also said the model of housing 16- to 24-year-olds — many of whom had criminal records — together was harming children. “Our nation’s vulnerable young adults deserve better,” it said.

According to data obtained by The Daily Wire, more than 500 sexual assaults have been reported at Job Corps facilities in the last three years, including a male student climbing through a female student’s window and raping her as she slept, according to a source with knowledge of the program.

Last year, a 16-year-old girl who identified as a transgender boy, and whom the Job Corps apparently enabled to be separated from her parents, was assigned to room with a 23-year-old man at the Glenmont Job Corps near Albany, New York. Demetrius Fair allegedly intimidated his “roommate” into performing oral sex on him before pinning her to the bed and raping her.

Then there were 4,600 reported violent assaults and 8,000 drug-related incidents over the past three years. Those numbers likely significantly understate the reality, since only the most severe incidents are recorded. Democrats have introduced legislation in recent years to further tolerate bad behavior at Job Corps centers by making it more difficult to expel people.

Job Corps participants brawl / YouTube

Eligibility requirements say that only people on welfare or living in poverty are eligible for the Job Corps, that refugees and non-citizen parolees are eligible, and that “no individual shall be denied enrollment in Job Corps solely on the basis of contact with the criminal justice system, except for the disqualifying felony convictions of murder…child abuse, or a crime involving rape or sexual assault.”

The program requires that applicants not be able to read at higher than an eighth grade level, saying they must be “unable to compute or solve problems…at a level necessary to function on the job, in the individual’s family, or in society,” or he must be homeless, a runaway, a high school dropout, or a victim of sex trafficking.

Staff are trained to tell applicants, “I see that you have (describe gang-related behavior, symbol, activity). Do you agree that if you are admitted to Job Corps, you will not (use/wear/display) (list behavior or symbols, etc.)?”

Although the program’s intent was to take youth from the margins of society and get them on the straight and narrow, over time, the dominant culture of Job Corps campuses became so heavily gang-ridden that, participants told The Daily Wire, it was more likely to turn a good kid bad than the reverse.

The program has been combatting a reputation as a dysfunctional inner city program since soon after its inception. In 1966, the New York Times ran a piece with the headline “Job Corps Seeks Racial Balance; Acts to Halt Trend Toward All-Negro Enrollment.”

In the 2010s, the Job Corps became a YouTube sensation, where the program’s “students” would post videos of them viciously fighting each other on their “campuses,” often while other participants stood by cheering.

A CBS investigation from that time period obtained video of a student cutting lines of white powder on a textbook during class. The head of security at a Job Corps facility told CBS he was pressured not to report crimes, because doing so could jeopardize the contractor’s funding. A Job Corps “career adviser” told CBS that 85% of the “job placements” reported by the contractor were fake, existing only to trick Congress about the efficacy of the program, and to get bonuses for staff who hit targets. Another teacher said students wouldn’t show up to class, but were certified as welders anyway, potentially creating safety issues for anyone who hired the person.

An inspector general report found that Job Corps graduates often wound up in fast food jobs that did not require any “training.”

Job Corps fight / Youtube