Judge blocks Labor Department's suspension of Job Corps centers

A federal judge has blocked the Labor Department's suspension of Job Corps centers after the agency found that the program has safety and financial issues.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter, an Obama appointee, temporarily stopped the Trump administration from taking additional steps to end the program, The Hill news outlet reported Wednesday. Job Corps was originally created by former President Lyndon B. Johnson to help disadvantaged young adults by offering free education, vocational training, and housing.

Last week, the Labor Department announced the suspension of its Job Corps centers following an "in-depth fiscal analysis and a startling number of serious incident reports reveal the program is not helping students achieve intended outcomes or keeping them safe."

A Job Corps transparency report released in April found that the average graduation rate for the program was just 38.6%, with the program costing as much as $155,600 per student. After students complete the program, they are mostly being hired in minimum-wage positions, making $16,695 annually on average.

There are roughly fewer than 25,000 students now enrolled in the program.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, including the National Job Corps Association, argued that suspending the centers is illegal.

“It contravenes the statutory provisions governing Job Corps and DOL’s own regulations concerning the program, and it is fundamentally irrational,” the plaintiffs claimed, according to court documents.  

“Shuttering Job Corps will have disastrous, irreparable consequences, including displacing tens of thousands of vulnerable young people, destroying companies that have long operated Job Corps centers in reliance on the Government’s support for the program, and forcing mass layoffs of workers who support the program,” the lawsuit reads.