The Trump administration’s decision, in May, to cut funding for the Job Corps program nationwide has been temporarily halted by the U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter in Manhattan. Carter issued an injunction preventing the U.S. Department of Labor from shutting down Job Corps centers without congressional approval, according to the Associated Press.
An injunction can be long lasting or even permanent. As a result of Carter’s injunction, Mami Job Corp Center director Bernard Johnson states the following, “ We are contacting former students, requesting they return to finish what they began.” Associated Press states Job Corp site leaders are waiting on the green light to accept new enrollments.
Judge Carter stated, “The Trump administration, as part of the executive branch, lacks the authority to unilaterally eliminate a congressionally mandated program like Job Corps.” The Department of Labor operates the youth-centered program, which is one of the nation’s largest and longest-running federal workforce development initiatives for disadvantaged young people.
Dianne Richardson, former director of Job Corps Los Angeles, explained, “Most Republican presidents have attempted to phase out what they consider entitlement programs. Ever since its inception, The Great Society has had a target on it.” She referenced President Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 initiative, The Great Society, was created to expand the federal government’s role in addressing poverty and inequality. Key components included the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964—which established programs like Job Corps and Volunteers in Service to America—and the Food Stamp Act of 1964, which provides food assistance to low-income individuals. The initiative also made significant investments in education and healthcare, such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which provides federal funding for schools serving disadvantaged students, and the Social Security Amendments of 1965, which created Medicare and Medicaid. “These were programs designed to uplift the impoverished,” Richardson added.
“Under the Nixon administration, the Corps’ funding was reduced, the number of training centers were cut, and the focus shifted from primarily aiding inner-city youth to helping white youth in smaller towns,” she said. “The Reagan administration also recommended eliminating Job Corps funding in the proposed 1986 budget, calling it too expensive and ineffective. However, a bipartisan Congress resisted both efforts.”
Richardson believes, “The Trump administration’s proposal to eliminate the Job Corps has already created a pause in operations at many centers operated by contractors.” She continued, “The cuts are already impacting California cities, including Sacramento, San Jose, Los Angeles, Long Beach, the Inland Empire, and San Diego. The nationwide closure of Job Corps centers, which provide vocational training and education, has left thousands of young Californians without critical support.”
In addition to pressure from Republican administrations to defund Job Corps, there were also critics within Black academia. One was Samuel Yette, the first Black Washington correspondent for Newsweek magazine, author, and former journalism professor at Howard University. In his book “The Choice: The Issue of Black Survival in America,” Yette wrote:
“The Job Corps, that billion-dollar program
that promised to rescue poor teenagers with
training and jobs, instead of being an eco-
nomic boon to the poor, became an alterna-
tive base for the military-industrial complex;
not a vehicle for getting boys into labor
unions, but a major source of boypower for
Vietnam; not a reasonably priced, soundly
based training course for existing jobs, but the
basis for a new educational-industrial com-
plex, a place for the conglomerates to dump
their worthless gadgets at inflated prices. And
instead of providing campsites for wholesome
surroundings and conservation programming,
the Job Corps camps—when 59 of them were
closed during 1969—became ready-made
concentration camps, places for the human
scrap heaps of the unskilled, the unconnected,
and those Blacks unwilling to stop procreating
and demonstrating in a society that neither
cared about their problems nor wanted any
more of their kind.”
Richardson disagrees with Yette’s assessment. “His perception of the Job Corps was incorrect,” she said. “I was in high school during the Vietnam War and can’t confirm nor deny whether it was a direct pipeline to Vietnam. But I do remember there were military recruiters at Manual Arts High School when I attended. I also knew that Manual Arts had a full shooting range in its basement below the gymnasium during the war.”
She continued, “Most of the military personnel on campus would smile and remain in their offices. They weren’t out grabbing students. They were there because the Los Angeles Unified School District received federal funds. When I was hired in the mid-1970’s as a counselor, we did not encourage our students to join the military. Most of our campuses were on federal land, and sometimes we shared space with the military. For example, our San Diego office was next to a Navy base.”
Richardson clarified, “The Job Corps prepared students academically to pass military entrance exams only if that was what the student wanted. We are successful at what we do. I’ve cried at many graduations watching needy kids come here with nothing—no skills, no plans, no support, no safety net, no food—and leave ready to take on the world.
She continued, “They learn discipline. They are taught the hiring policies of the private companies that operate centers. This is our first step to persuade those companies to hire our graduates.”
Former student Jody Butler graduated from Job Corps last year with a trade in concrete form carpentry. She is the first in her family to complete any post–high school education. “I didn’t finish high school because no one in my family had ever completed it,” Butler said. “I had no role models around me. I believed dropping out was normal based on my environment. I was stuck in a dead-end job working at a fast-food restaurant that was constantly being robbed.”
She was also exposed to gang activity and drug addiction in her community and believed she would eventually die in the Nickerson Gardens housing projects. “I enrolled in the Job Corps after my brother’s wife agreed to drive me to the San Diego campus,” Butler said.
Sharing a room with three strangers didn’t bother her. “I would recommend the program to anyone who wants to become independent and become a whole person,” she said. “It was a three-year program, and it was free. Everything was provided: meals, an on-campus clinic, a laundromat, recreation, and even a barbershop for the men. The staff supported me the entire time.”
She now works as a journeyman with a company that is rebuilding Pacific Palisades. “I work with two engineers—one is a geologist, and one specializes in upgrading foundations. We install these large tubes and create caissons to support foundations.”
Fred Blakely, who works for the city of Los Angeles as a carpenter, completed an eight-month carpentry program at Job Corps. He was hired by the city two years ago as an entry-level carpenter. He said it was his stepfather who encouraged him to enroll.
“My mother and stepdad were struggling to raise my younger brothers and sisters. I was attending Trade Technical College but wasn’t making much progress, and it was becoming very expensive,” Blakely explained. “I enrolled in the Job Corps with just three dollars in my pocket. My recruiter told me, ‘Put that three dollars in a jar—you won’t need it.’ I still have that jar with the three dollars in it today.”
Both Butler and Blakely agree: if Job Corps is taken away, young individuals in inner-city communities will lose a vital second chance to become productive, self-sufficient members of society.
