The National Job Corps Association (NJCA) has sued the U.S. Department of Labor to block closures of 99 of its centers nationwide. Job Corps is the nation’s largest free, residential career training and education program for low-income young adults ages 16 through 24.
Providing meals, basic medical care, a living allowance and access to 10 career industries, including advanced manufacturing, automotive and machine repair, to construction, health care, information technology and transportation.
On June 3, the NJCA filed a motion for a temporary restraining order in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, after the Department of Labor announced it would begin a pause in operations (to occur by June 30) at the contractor-operated Job Corps centers.
District Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr. granted the motion on June 4, barring the federal government from taking any further actions to eliminate the $1.5 billion program without congressional authorization.
No decision was reached at a same-day hearing over whether or not the judge should issue a temporary injunction blocking the closures while the matter is litigated, according to Mountain Top Media. In the meantime, he extended the temporary restraining order until June 25, while he weighs a decision on the injunction, it reported. The case is ongoing.
“For generations, Job Corps has provided life-changing education and hands-on training to young people looking for a pathway to a better future,” said Donna Hay, president and CEO of the NJCA. “These students are often overcoming significant personal and economic challenges and Job Corps gives them the ability to gain the skills they need to build meaningful careers,” she said, in a June 3 news release.
The Department of Labor move threatens to disrupt the lives of tens of thousands of students and creates a ripple effect of economic challenges for communities and industries that rely on Job Corps graduates, argued the NJCA. According to Job Corps, it services more than 60,000 youth.
Nearly 50% identified Black; 59% were male, and 77% lacked a high school diploma or equivalent, according to a 2018 evaluation of the program conducted by the Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse.
“It’s been such a debacle,” stated James Harris, former center director at the Benjamin L. Hooks Job Corps Center in Memphis, Tennessee, from 2004-2018. He currently works at the corporate office.
According to Mr. Harris, the unique thing is the DOL contested that it is not shutting down the entire program, but closing 99 centers, which are contractor operated. Their aim is to leave open the approximately 25 government-run Civilian Conservation Centers.
“But the sad reality is we weren’t able to transfer students in the contractor centers to the civilian centers. So essentially, they just literally had to go home, to shelters, wherever they could find a place is where they had to go,” Mr. Harris told The Final Call. “It’s been most unfortunate, needless to say,” he said.
But some students hung in there, added Mr. Harris. The Memphis center still had 70 students on board, at press time. But it lost anywhere from 90 to 100 students, who packed and left because they were upset, not knowing that a temporary restraining order would be approved, he said.
He feels the government will allow reinstatement for some students who want to return, because they left under false pretense. Still, the impact will be significant, Mr. Harris said.
Centers have not been able to enroll students since the Department of Labor put a freeze on background checks in April, but they’re still separating students who complete the program and graduate and those who became distraught and resigned or quit, as well, he explained.
“We have to realize that our young individuals, everyone’s not going to college, and a trade school like Job Corps that has been around for 60 years and has the impact that it has had with changing the lives of these young individuals,” he stated.
One student they sent to Excelsior Springs, Kansas City, for an advanced training program graduated and left there with his first job with Amtrak making $85,000 a year, Mr. Harris said.
“This is a 24 year old, and his first job was $85,000 a year. And that may not be the norm, but that is the potential that this program has for these individuals who come in with the right focus, right skill set, and know where they want to go. And he’s just one of many that have gone on and done extremely well with their careers,” he stated.
Alternatives offered by the federal government are Apprenticeship (on-the-job training and related classroom instruction) for ages 16 and up; Youth Build, which gives at-risk youth ages 16-24 the opportunity to earn their high school diploma or state-recognized equivalency degree;
And Youth Connections, which is a comprehensive youth employment program for eligible youth, ages 14-24, who face barriers to education, training, and employment.
However, most programs mirror Job Corps but don’t offer the residential component for those who are destitute with no place to live, noted Mr. Harris. Most don’t offer the every other week stipend for personal needs, snacks, etc.; most don’t provide a year’s worth of placement services after they’ve completed the program.
“And after they get placed, then they get an additional year of follow up to make sure that if something happens, we still provide support and services to place them in another opportunity of employment,” he said.
“This program is phenomenal. Yes. It has some issues and concerns, but by and large, I don’t know anything that comes close to Job Corps,” Mr. Harris emphasized.
The Department of Labor has said the Job Corps program has faced significant financial challenges under its current operating structure, citing a first-ever “Job Corps Transparency Report.”
Among other things, the document released on April 25 cited a 38.6% graduation rate, more than $80,000 average cost per student per year, average total cost per graduate of more than $155,000, and a post separation on average earning by participants of $16,695 annually.
“Job Corps was created to help young adults build a pathway to a better life through education, training, and community,” said Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, in the release. “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.”
But, the Department of Labor’s 2025 “Job Corps Transparency Report” is flawed, argued NJCA staff in an April 26 statement.
They argued, “The inflated cost per graduate is the result of examining a year where Job Corps, like other similar schools and colleges, was still recovering from COVID’s impacts as well as new regulations that have affected student retention and graduation.”
For example, one policy requires high school graduates who enroll for career and technical education to instead participate in remedial academic courses until they are effectively “college ready,” regardless of whether that aligns with their career goals. In addition, COVID policies, some still in place, that have negatively affected enrollments and student retention.
“We were just going through the major effects of COVID and on the back end, there were just a large number of young people deciding to try their hand at the Job Corps process,” said Robert Johnson, who was the Evening Education Coordinator from 2020-2022, during COVID-19.
Job Corps proved a fail safe for youth who have adjustment problems when it comes to going to school or being around other types of students. It put them in an environment where they had to learn how to function independently of home, explained Mr. Johnson, who helped students prepare for high school diplomas and ran an online high school program.
“Now you kill the momentum that you had. This had become a spearhead for a number of kids who ultimately felt that this would be an option for me if all else fails. If I went to jail at an early age because I did something stupid as a young kid, and then I wanted to change my life, and I wanted to turn it around.
This was a good way to do it, because it put me in a place, in an environment where now I have an opportunity to do something different, and I don’t have to continue to suffer,” Mr. Johnson told The Final Call.
The importance of training, educating and developing Black youth in areas and fields so they can work to become independent is critical. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught that self-sufficiency and independence for the Black man and woman is the key to our success.
“The Honorable Elijah Muhammad lifted up a mighty example of doing for self for the Black man of America. Many said the Muslims operated mom and pop stores, and made mockery of our humble beginnings. However, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad lifted up a light for all to see.
He was not working with the ‘best minds’ in the country, but with those that society labeled as social misfits, the outcasts and the prisoners,” stated the Honorable Minister Farrakhan in his Final Call article, “Black Man: Do for Self or Suffer the Consequences,” that was originally published in Volume 1, No. 4.
“There were very few people who worked with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad who were highly trained and highly learned. Yet, He showed us how to pool our resources, go to the earth and farm, thereby giving us the ability to do that which would one day enable us to be independent, and gain the respect of the civilized peoples of the world,” said Minister Farrakhan.
Timothy Muhammad, a former GED instructor for Job Corps in New Orleans, said the solution is within the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad under the guidance and leadership of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan: Do for Self.
“Still be able to develop entrepreneurs, and the entrepreneurial spirit. … The solution lies in developing those talents and putting persons to work,” Minister Farrakhan continued.
“As I have traveled throughout the country, everywhere I go I see the spirit in the young Black student, which if properly directed would cause them to do for themselves. We must remember, that if we desire the respect of the world, you and I must do that which will earn that respect.
If our former slave masters saw us farming, bringing produce to warehouses that we own, and shipping that produce into the cities where we live;
If White people saw us taking over clothing, shoe, and food stores in our neighborhoods rather than allowing Jews, Arabs, and every other nationality to sell us everything, they would then tip their hats, bow their heads and admit, ‘Now, the Black man is worthy of respect, because he respects himself,’” Minister Farrakhan added.
“No one respects a beggar, and up until now we are beggars for a job, clothing, and education from the White man. No, Black man, the time has now arrived where you must beg no man. You must get up and do it for yourself.”