Latest news with #JobCorps
Boston Globe
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Thousands of homeless students left in the lurch after Job Center closures put on hold
'That was how I was able to escape homelessness,' Kary added. 'My whole life has been defined by loss and poverty and just living on the most precarious knife edge.' Job Corps is a federally funded program for young people between the ages of 16 and 24 that provides free housing, meals, basic medical care, school supplies, childcare, English language instruction, and a small allowance while students earn high school equivalency degrees and trade certifications. The National Job Corps Association sued the DOL shortly after the announcement alleging the department's order to pause the program was illegal because only Congress can eliminate the program and because it would displace thousands of students and lead to mass layoffs. In June, a US District Court judge for the Southern District of New York granted a preliminary injunction against the DOL, effectively halting the DOL's order indefinitely and allowing Job Corps's 123 centers to remain operational. But Kary and the approximately 4,500 other students nationwide who were homeless before joining the program's living and learning spaces are still at risk of displacement. Advertisement As part of its fiscal 2026 budget, the DOL has proposed eviscerating Job Corps, allocating it a fraction of its typical funding for the purpose of closing and demolishing the centers. Congress is expected to begin voting on the proposed budget in September, though it can take months to pass. Advertisement Labor experts in Massachusetts say the state's workforce development system is not designed for a shake-up that would displace many of the 799 students who were enrolled at three centers in Massachusetts in May. 'Whenever we need to put students somewhere, Job Corps is front and center,' Jeffrey Turgeon, director of MassHire Central, said. 'We're losing a major tool.' After the meeting announcing its closure, the Shriver Job Corps Center told students it would remain operational for the time being. Yet, a majority of students who lived at the center left the Shriver Center, opting to find alternative housing in the face of the center's day-to-day uncertainty. After investing months into diplomas and career certificates, students feel mixed emotions about what will come next for them. Kary worries about leaving empty-handed if the court eventually rules that the centers must close, or Congress approves funding cuts to the Job Corps. She started her training program to work in public transportation, which she said typically takes one year to complete, just a week before the DOL order. 'As nice as it is, it still feels uncertain,' Kary said. 'It's a race against the preliminary injunction and the government.' Mohammad Niazy, 18, and Matiullah Kabir, 19, discovered a near-empty cafeteria when they arrived at the Shriver Center for class earlier this month. The two commute to campus from Harvard, MA, where Advertisement Niazy earned his high school diploma from the center in May. Kabir, who had already graduated from his local high school, studied computer technology at Shriver, where he started a football team and received his driver's license. He said he was shocked when he learned that DOL ordered a pause in operations. 'It was so fast, people were not ready for this. A lot of people were living there and working. They were definitely crying, they were saying, 'Where do we go now?'' Kabir said. Facing potential Job Corps closures, students can apply for state-run high school equivalency degrees and vocational training programs, paid apprenticeships, or community college, according to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD). Governor Maura Healey's housing office had also been developing a contingency plan for displaced students leading up to the preliminary injunction, spokesperson Tara Smith said in an email to the Globe last month. 'Until the lawsuit is resolved, we continue to monitor the situation with EOLWD and other state agencies as it relates to potential next steps with affected students,' Smith added. Until joining Job Corps, Kary, who asked to be identified by her first name because she fears harassment by the government as a transgender woman, was in and out of homelessness. She was kicked out of her childhood home by her family when she turned 18. She crashed on friends' couches and waited in line at food banks for meals. She eventually got a job as a cashier earning $9 an hour, but it was nowhere near enough to make ends meet. Advertisement For four months in the winter of 2022, Kary slept every night in a tent — even in the pouring rain and freezing temperatures. When a friend told Kary about Job Corps's residential program, she applied as soon as she could. 'Job Corps was my only hope,' she said. The DOL says it wants to end the program because it is not achieving its including the 38.6 percent graduation rate it cited in its justification for pausing the program, which comes from the 2023 program year, reflect high dropout rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. Local politicians in Massachusetts are concerned about the impact shuttering the program would have on their communities. 'The reality is a program like this, which no doubt costs millions of dollars just for the Devens center, is that it's not going to be replaced,' Massachusetts State Senator Jamie Eldridge, whose district includes Shriver, said. In 'Massachusetts industries obviously depend on the kind of technical training the Job Corps provides,' Congresswoman Lori Trahan, whose district also covers Shriver, said. Kary worries that she will not be hired for a job without her trade certification. She does not want to go to a shelter for fear of harassment but no other training programs offer housing. Yet when she thinks about the future, she imagines a quiet life working as a train conductor, a career that she became passionate about while studying at Shriver. Advertisement Kary has one more non-negotiable. She has to live in Massachusetts. 'I love Massachusetts. I'd fully crawl my way out of homelessness and then be in Massachusetts,' said Kary. 'This place is end goal for me.' Jade Lozada can be reached at
Newsweek
16-07-2025
- Business
- Newsweek
What Happens When Washington Cuts Workforce Development? Ask New York
Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Though the FY2026 budget isn't final, the newly signed One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) has already triggered devastating disinvestment in New York's workforce and economic stability. Rather than supporting cities in their efforts to build inclusive economic growth, Congress and President Donald Trump have advanced sweeping cuts through OBBBA, eliminating Job Corps (temporarily blocked by the courts), slashing the Department of Labor's budget by 35 percent, and gutting Medicaid. The timing could not be more harmful. Our city and state are making investments in green infrastructure, clean energy, life sciences, and housing. But Washington is pulling critical support from under us. The policies enacted in OBBBA undermine our ability to train workers, support economic mobility, and care for vulnerable communities. President Donald Trump answers questions while departing the White House on July 11, 2025, in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump answers questions while departing the White House on July 11, 2025, in Washington, the law cuts $715 billion from Medicaid and ACA programs. In New York, over 6.9 million residents rely on Medicaid, including 2.1 million adults through ACA expansion. Hospital reimbursements will shrink. Safety-net providers already operating on razor-thin margins will be pushed to the brink. In New York City, over 1.5 million residents could see a drop in access to care, just as our health care system is still recovering from the pandemic. OBBBA also strips federal support from New York's Essential Plan, which covers 725,000 lawfully present immigrants. Unless New York finds $4 billion annually, coverage losses will follow, disproportionately affecting working adults who keep the city running. And then there's Job Corps. For decades, Job Corps has helped out-of-school youth—especially youth of color—enter the workforce. In New York City, where income inequality remains among the highest in the nation, it's been a pillar of inclusive opportunity. Its elimination would leave thousands of young New Yorkers without a foothold in the economy. New Medicaid work requirements would add red tape with little benefit. Adults aged 18–64 must repeatedly verify employment or exemptions. Up to 1.5 million New Yorkers risk losing coverage, not for failing to work, but for failing to navigate bureaucracy. This provision will overwhelm a municipal workforce that has seen hiring freezes and attrition, particularly in frontline human services and child care administration. Who will support these recipients when the system demands more documentation but offers no added staff? New York City's public assistance infrastructure—especially TANF and subsidized child care—is already strained by backlogs and delays. These new mandates will push it to the breaking point. Families are losing access to both income support and the services that make work possible, like child care, job placement, and case management. This is disinvestment in America's future, and in New York's. SNAP, Medicaid, and workforce development are economic drivers. SNAP alone injects $7.8 billion into New York's economy annually. Workforce training reduces dependency on public benefits, strengthens small business growth, and boosts tax revenue. In New York City, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)-funded career centers, youth employment contracts, and pre-apprenticeship pipelines are already being destabilized by the cuts enacted in OBBBA. New York has long been a model for inclusive economic growth and smart workforce investments. But no amount of local innovation can offset a $715 billion federal retreat from health care or the gutting of job training infrastructure. What's equally alarming is the absence of a coordinated, targeted response from City Hall and Albany. There has been no unified strategy to protect the infrastructure of opportunity that so many New Yorkers rely on. A hollowed-out municipal workforce cannot respond effectively. Meanwhile, community-based organizations are once again left to absorb the shock, expected to do more with less, even as they face chronic delays in city payments and no assurances of sustained funding. Instead of mobilizing to mitigate the damage, local leadership has offered silence, short-term patches, or fragmented efforts that fail to meet the moment. At the same time, we find ourselves jousting over mayoral frontrunners and watching the early moves of gubernatorial politicking, while too many New Yorkers are reeling from the dismantling of the middle class, the disappearance of middle-wage jobs, and the erosion of public systems. The disconnect between political theater and lived reality is widening. Debates over who wins the next election will mean little if there's no workforce left to train, no safety net left to rebuild, and no path forward for the people who keep our city running. Congress must be held accountable, and New York's delegation must be unified, visible, and vocal. These cuts are direct threats to job seekers in East New York, to immigrant families in Queens, to union apprentices in the South Bronx, and to working parents in Buffalo and Rochester who rely on Medicaid to stay healthy enough to work. Let us not confuse austerity with a strategic approach. Investing in people is not charity. It is how economies grow. Gregory J. Morris is CEO of the NYC Employment and Training Coalition. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Bloomberg
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Don't Cut a Program That Helps Young Americans Get Jobs
Job Corps, one of the largest and oldest job training programs in the country, finds itself on life support. For decades, it has prepared tens of thousands of poor, often homeless and low-skilled young people for solid jobs in construction, skilled trades, hotels, restaurants and more. Now, a rash and ill-considered decision by the Trump administration has abruptly halted funding for the program, potentially leaving students who live at Job Corps sites with no place to go. A federal judge's injunction is keeping the centers in operation temporarily while a lawsuit goes through the courts.
Black America Web
12-07-2025
- Business
- Black America Web
HBCUs Offer Help To Students Affected By Potential Job Corps Closure
Source: Artit_Wongpradu / Getty Job Corps is a government-run program providing low-income and at-risk youth with skills training, housing, and meals, preparing them to enter the workforce and improve their lot in life. Many of these at-risk students were left with no place to go and few options to continue their skills training when the Department of Labor attempted to shut down the program and close all centers in May. There's still hope on the horizon as several HBCUs have stepped up nationwide to assist students affected by the attempted closure. HBCUs such as Morris Brown College in Atlanta have opened their doors to students affected by the potential closure of Job Corps. 'The situation at Job Corps touched me intimately,' Morris Brown College President Dr. Kevin James told Atlanta's Channel 2 News. 'My first job out of college was teaching at Job Corps. I have first-hand experience of how important Job Corps is.' James sent a letter to Job Corps asking students to enroll at the school so they can continue their education. 'We'll sit down with them to talk to them about what their goals and dreams are, and maybe even walk them through considerations of different skills. Here at Morris Brown College, we want them to know that they're not alone,' Dr. James told Channel 2. He added that counselors will help guide potential students through the financial aid process and answer any questions they may have. Morris Brown College is only one of several schools that have offered to help Job Corps students continue their education. Arkansas-based HBCU Shorter College also stepped up to provide opportunities for students affected by the potential closure. 'It started with a small group of five. Now we're up to about 18 to 20 students,' Shorter College president Jeffery Norfleet told KARK. 'We are able to have financial aid, and we want to see them to the finish line with a degree.' While former Job Corps students were able to enroll at Shorter College, it was donations from the Little Rock community that provided the students with food and shelter. 'Coming here and knowing we had something to eat, a place to sleep, it's been beyond words,' Samantha Reyes, a Job Corps student enrolled at Shorter, told KARK. Job Corps students faced uncertainty about their future after the Labor Department released a statement in late May announcing the sudden closure of the skills training program by the end of June. The Labor Department cited budget concerns and unsatisfactory outcomes as the reason for the closure. '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 the 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.' So they have $150 billion to give to the Cheeto Gestapo ICE, but they simply can't find the coins to invest in our country's most vulnerable youth. Got it. The abrupt closure of Job Corps was surprising, as it historically has had bipartisan support. The fact Chavez-DeRemer wrote a letter in support of the organization only last year made the move more confusing. Students enrolled in Job Corps received some relief in June when a federal judge ruled Job Corps must stay open while a lawsuit against the Labor Department over the attempted closure proceeds. The Trump administration, and everyone who voted for it, have made it abundantly clear that anyone who isn't a cisgender, heterosexual, white male is on their own. Times like these are why community is so important. The moves by these HBCUs are proof that even if nobody else got us, we got us. SEE ALSO: Trump Admin Abruptly Closes Job Corps Centers Nationwide Job Corps 'Pause' Is MAGA's Plan To Eliminate Poor Youth SEE ALSO HBCUs Offer Help To Students Affected By Potential Job Corps Closure was originally published on
CNN
05-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Trump wants more skilled tradespeople. His Labor Department is trying to cut off a pipeline of workers
Eighteen months ago, at around 7 p.m. practically every night, Chloe Lawson would start a four-mile walk to Subway, where she'd work the overnight shift, earning a buck above the $7.25 federal minimum wage. Eight hours later, the then 19-year-old would clock out and head back to find somewhere to hopefully get some sleep. She had no family, no friends she could stay with in Splendora, Texas, a small town outside Houston. She often found herself at 'some shady hotel' or other unsafe places. 'I honestly didn't have a future,' she said. That's changed in the year and a half since: Lawson, now 21, has interviews lined up to be a train conductor, a job that starts out with an $80,000 annual salary and could open the door for other higher-earning positions in the years to come. But the vocational training program that got her and many others into better jobs is suddenly in jeopardy. Lawson is one of at least 21,000 current students whose coursework and hands-on training were upended by the Department of Labor's announcement in late May to pause operations at Job Corps, a residential career training program for low-income and at-risk youth that was started 60 years ago under President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty. The Labor Department, citing budget deficits and claiming poor results, said that it was halting contracts on the 99 private-contractor-operated sites under its purview by the end of June and that it would initiate an orderly transition of students from the residential program into their respective communities. The move is part of a broader push within the Trump administration to slash federal programs. '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 at the time. She noted that an analysis of the program raised concerns about safety and its fiscal health. '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 National Job Corps Association, a trade organization of center operators and other community and business organizations that support the centers, have pushed back on the Labor Department's claims, arguing that the analysis cherry-picked data distorted by the pandemic and sensationalized the safety aspect (which the organization stated were the result of strict reporting requirements and included incidents such as injuries, power outages and adult students leaving campus without approval). However, the abrupt suspension and potential long-term closure of Job Corps carries far-reaching implications, economists, employers, attorneys general and members of Congress caution: If Job Corps goes dark, the Labor Department is cutting off a long-forged pipeline of young, skilled trades workers not only when there's a shortage but also when President Donald Trump is seeking to revitalize the US manufacturing industry. 'We have a very strong need for those with less than a bachelor's degree,' Rachel Sederberg, senior economist at Lightcast, a labor market data and analytics firm, told CNN in an interview. Those include maintenance workers, truck drivers and healthcare roles such medical assistants, she said, adding: 'These are very critical jobs for our economy and for our day-to-day as consumers.' 'We're going to start feeling it quite acutely if we aren't able to get things in our homes fixed or it takes longer to get things manufactured and transported and into our stores.' The abrupt May 29 announcement sent staff scrambling at Job Corps centers nationwide, and, in some cases, resulted in students heading back to the streets. The operators of several centers filed a lawsuit in federal district court challenging the government's move. Late last month, a judge in the case gave Job Corps a reprieve, granting a preliminary injunction on the suspension of operations. However, that lifeline is likely temporary: A recent Supreme Court ruling that limited nationwide injunctions could affect the outcome of the Job Corps case and, in turn, the program's operations. And, ultimately, Job Corps' ongoing operations come down to whether Congress continues to fund it. A Department of Labor spokesperson told CNN that the agency is not conducting interviews at this time but provided a statement following the injunction ruling: 'The Department of Labor is working closely with the Department of Justice to evaluate and comply with the temporary restraining order. We remain confident that our actions are consistent with the law.' The Department of Labor pointed CNN to an online FAQ about the Job Corps pause. 'The Department of Labor is collaborating with state and local workforce partners to assist current students in advancing their training and connecting them with education and employment opportunities,' the FAQ reads in part. Trump, like presidents Obama and Biden, has long stated a desire to revive US manufacturing. Trump has sought to wield tariffs as a solution. However, economists and supply chain analysts have questioned the effectiveness of that approach. The White House did not respond to CNN's request for comment. In the meantime, industry members long involved with the program fear they're losing opportunities to educate, train and place new workers to meet growing demand and help fill the void left by retiring tradespeople. A report last year from McKinsey & Company estimated that from 2022 to 2032, the annual hiring for 'critical skilled trades' roles (such as carpenters, electricians, plumbers, welders and laborers) is projected to be 20 times that of all other jobs. A shutdown of Job Corps threatens to negatively ripple through the economy, said Arthur Maratea, national president of the Transportation Communications Union/IAM. The union has taught, trained, counseled and helped place more than 16,000 Job Corps Advanced Training students in railroad industry jobs since 1971. 'It will definitely hurt the labor market, that I can tell you,' Maratea told CNN, 'because going into the trades, there are not that many apprenticeships. We're short electricians, we're short on our carmen, we're short everything.' Job Corps has provided a consistent stream of trained workers to railroad operators, helping them find employees while saving on costs, Maratea said. Without those added workers, supply chains could be disrupted. 'If we're not there, the freights are not going to have enough people to do the job, which mean there's hold-ups at the ports on goods coming in,' he said. 'It's going to affect commuters, and it's going to affect our food chain lines. There's a bigger picture to this.' In June, the labor force participation rate for 16- to 24-year-olds fell for the third consecutive month and landed at 54.9%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. That rate is 13 percentage points below where it was in March 1990, when youth employment participation peaked at 67.9%. For comparison, the overall labor force participation fell 4.4 percentage points to 62.3% between March 1990 and June 2025, BLS data shows. 'We know that those from less-advantaged backgrounds can benefit from additional mentorship, can benefit from stability that a job might provide and from understanding various parts of the labor market that they might not have been exposed to otherwise,' said Lightcast's Sederberg, who has researched the outcomes of employment programs for teens and young adults. 'Anything that's increasing youth involvement within the labor force, increasing opportunities, is something that we should be trying to do more of.' In 2019, Jasmine Geib said she was on a fast track to a low-paying job and getting even further in debt with student loans. 'I was taking a break from college. I didn't feel ready to go back there; I also was in a really bad place in my life, went through a bad breakup, and I just had nowhere else to go,' said Geib, 29, in an interview last week with CNN. 'I was basically homeless, living couch to couch, and my friend went to Job Corps before me and told me about it.' Geib had a dream of becoming a flight attendant and sought advanced education at Job Corps; however, opportunities shifted, and she ended up going through the union-run railroad training program in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. Geib now is four years into a job at Union Pacific, where she is a licensed conductor and engineer and currently helping to move locomotives at the North Platte, Nebraska, hub as a hostler. She's making $90,000 to $100,000 a year with the potential of having that double in a matter of years. In recent weeks, both Geib and Lawson have jumped into advocacy roles, writing letters to congresspeople and sharing their experiences on social media about Job Corps. 'I feel like, if they need to do something, they can reform it; but I don't think they should full-blown shut it down,' Geib said. Lawson, who grew up in a small town outside of Houston, Texas, made good grades in high school, but college just wasn't the right fit. She moved back home but was kicked out and ended up unhoused. 'I won't say I had it the worst, definitely not compared to some kids here; I've never had trouble with the law,' she said. 'But before Job Corps, I honestly had nothing. I had maybe 20 bucks to my name.' Her former boss at Subway mentioned Job Corps as a possibility for career development, but the Texas center was full up, and Lawson scraped together what she had to make her way to the Job Corps in Collbran, Colorado, a tiny town nestled in the Plateau Valley. There she learned about iron working, welding and fabrication and eventually had her interests piqued by opportunities within the railroad sector. With the TCU/IAM heading up a hands-on program in Excelsior Springs, she ventured east to where she is today. 'We need trades, we need CNAs (certified nursing assistants), we need corrections officers, we need carmen, we need conductors, we need welders, we need these things, and they're helping kids who, in reality, would probably be in jail or dead,' Lawson said. 'They're helping kids that had no future make something of themselves instead of working at McDonald's, instead of working at a low-paying job.'
