Healey calls for Job Corps reopening
Tax collections far higher than last year's
The mission of the Job Corps is to provide at-risk youth with the tools they need to start a successful career and be financially independent.
The Job Corps program enrolls 900 Bay Staters aged 16-24, including over 300 students at their Chicopee location.
The Department of Labor announced the program pause, saying it was due to their 38% graduation rate and $80,000 per student yearly cost, but Job Corps' national branch says neither of these statistics is correct.
According to Job Corps, their graduation rate is historically above 60%, and the cost per enrollee sits at less than $50,000 per year.
The governor says losing Job Corps will affect not only the young people in the program, but employers as well.
'Now, hundreds of young people are without the training and housing they were relying on, hundreds of employees are facing layoffs, and Massachusetts employers are being left without the talent they need,' said the governor.
Staff at the Chicopee Job Corps center say they are not sure what will happen to their students, but they are certain all staff will be laid off.
A New York judge temporarily stopped the Job Corps elimination on Thursday morning, as both Democrats and Republicans have denounced the Trump Administration's efforts to shutter Job Corps centers.
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.
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