Federal Judge Orders Job Corps Sites Remain Open As Lawsuit Proceeds
Last month, the Department of Labor (DOL) made the needlessly cruel move to abruptly shut down Job Corps, a program designed to provide at-risk and low-income youth with skills training, housing, and health care. In a move that will hopefully provide some relief for the teens and young adults affected by the attempted closure, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday that will allow all Job Corps sites to stay open while a lawsuit against the Labor Department proceeds.
According to AP News, the injunction comes in addition to a temporary restraining order previously issued by U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter that prevented students from being removed from housing and jobs provided through Job Corps without congressional approval.
“Once Congress has passed legislation stating that a program like the Job Corps must exist, and set aside funding for that program, the DOL is not free to do as it pleases; it is required to enforce the law as intended by Congress,” Carter’s ruling read.
The DOL argued that they didn’t need Congressional approval for their move as they were only “pausing” operations and not closing the centers entirely. Carter dismissed that notion, citing how the DOL has gone about executing this “pause.”
“The way that the DOL is shuttering operations and the context in which the shuttering is taking place make it clear that the DOL is actually attempting to close the centers,” Carter wrote.
In May, the DOL issued a statement announcing that operations at all Job Corps centers must cease by June 30. The reason given cited a transparency report showing Job Corps was operating at a $140 million deficit and had a graduation rate of 38%. Instead of drafting a plan to reduce the deficit and improve outcomes for the students involved, the Trump administration moved to “pause” operations, because let’s be real, that’s far less work, and this administration is nothing if not lazy.
The lawsuit against the DOL was filed by the National Job Corps Association shortly after their statement announcing the “pause.” Their lawsuit alleges that the pause would displace thousands of vulnerable young people and result in mass layoffs at the 123 federally funded Job Corps centers nationwide.
The “pause” caught both students and employees at Job Corps centers off guard, as they weren’t given any prior notice that the closures were even a possibility. Members of Congress and the public at large felt this was an unnecessary move that would only bring harm to some of America’s most vulnerable youth.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer was grilled over her handling of Job Corps during an appearance before the House Education and Workforce Committee earlier this month. “Job Corps, which you know has bipartisan support in Congress, trains young, low-income people, and helps them find good-paying jobs and provides housing for a population that might otherwise be without a home,” U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said during the committee meeting.
Scott then read a letter written by Chavez-DeRemer only last year advocating for Job Corps and the work it does to provide employment opportunities for at-risk young adults. “You’ve made a starkly abrupt shift from a champion to a destroyer of this important program,” Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) said in response to the letter.
Job Corps not only provides skills training for potential employment but also housing and meals for participants. Many of the teens and young adults who enroll in Job Corps come from low-income families and, in many cases, are homeless.
In his ruling, Carter cited the story of a New York Job Corps student who is listed as a plaintiff in the case. The student lives at the Job Corps center and is currently working to earn a culinary arts certificate. Should the site close, the student would lose all progress towards her degree and “will immediately be plunged into homelessness,” Carter wrote.
Lawsuits can take years to come to a conclusion, and given that Job Corps has bipartisan support in Congress, hopefully, this provides relief for the thousands of students who are currently working to improve their lives through the program. It’s truly a shame they even had to endure this uncertainty in the first place.
SEE ALSO:
Trump Admin Abruptly Closes Job Corps Centers Nationwide
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