Posted on 04/29/2025 1:41:10 PM PDT by DFG
A Labor Department program designed to train 16- to 24-year-olds to join the workforce spends more per person annually than Ivy League colleges, but participants wind up making minimum wage on average — raising questions about whether it should continue to exist.
The Job Corps pays teenage runaways, high school dropouts, and twentysomething ex-cons to live in dormitories and receive their GEDs and vocational training. The national cost per graduate was $188,000, with the average graduate staying 13.5 months. Of more than 110 campuses, the 10 least efficient averaged a cost of $385,000 per graduate. Job Corps participants earn $16,695 per year on average after leaving the program, according to new government data.
Nearly $2 billion in federal taxpayer money is spent annually on residential Job Corps campuses, a boon for the for-profit contractors who run them. But the dismal statistics about the program’s efficacy have never been fully public until the Trump administration released a “Transparency Report” last week.
The Job Corps has only a 32% graduation rate, though statistics have typically been calculated using a misleading definition of “graduate,” which bumped the number up slightly to 39%. Of about 30,000 enrollees in the 2023-24 school year, roughly 10,000 were expelled for misconduct, 5,000 were booted for absconding, and 5,000 dropped out for other reasons. The average cost per enrollee, including those who dropped out or were expelled, was $50,000, with an average stay of 7.5 months, working out to $80,000 per year.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailywire.com ...
/sarc
My middle boy is a graduate. He is an Eagle Scout with high functioning autism. Earned his Able Bodied Seaman card and five other cards. Probably saved my kid’s life. Not just for delinquents.
My kid is a white Eagle Scout. All of his friends in that program were white.
“My kid is a white Eagle Scout. All of his friends in that program were white.”
To be honest with you I never knew a scout that needed
much Government help.
Seems to me one of their virtues is self reliance.
My family taught me woodsman ship that no scout would ever get.
These kids were my neighbors, but I wasn’t brainwashed by
liberal ideology, My dad would kick my ass If I let the fire go out. My uncle would kick my butt if I could not start a fire from scratch in a rain storm.
To be fair I’ve know scouts that were impressive,
but so were their fathers.
It’s all grift. Do some forensic accounting of the bureaucrats running the program and their connection to contractors and vendors.
This is nothing new. It has been going on for decades. I had a good friend who worked at the Labor Dept overseeing Job Corps contracts and it was this way in the 1980’s. We used to have arguments over it as I called it a waste of money. She passed away back in the mid ‘90’s. Great person but a stubborn Democrat.
Sounds like the Red Cross, 95 % for administration and 5% on the kids.
Our entire government is a mind boggling criminal enterprise.
L
“Job Corps is a great for those that can’t go into the military.”
What evidence do you have that supports this assertion?
L
My two cousins.
“My two cousins.”
So the experience of your two cousins should determine policy for the entire country?
Can you point me to which Article and Section of the Constitution gives the Federal Government the power to spend money on this?
L
You asked for evidence, and I gave it.
Welfare, Social Security, and the National Guard deploying overseas are not constitutional either, so dispense with the idea we follow the Constitution. We don’t even teach it.
The limits are only the limits of the geniuses studiously being stupid.
Spot on.
Anecdotal evidence is the most unreliable evidence of all.
L
You posit 2 anecdotal cases out of more than 50,000 as “evidence”.
Thats just sad.
“ Welfare, Social Security, and the National Guard deploying overseas are not constitutional.”
Two out of three ain’t bad, I guess.
And here you argue that because there are multiple un-Constitutional things the government is doing we shouldn’t get rid of one you happen to favor.
Once again, that’s just sad.
L
I went to a military academy, so I guess the idea of a government subsidized education didn’t rub me the wrong way ideologically. I also recall a few judges that dismissed B&Es, DUIs, and other crimes if they agreed to enlist.
Job Corps was never an option I considered, but a very good friend of mine worked for them and for my kid’s condition, it seemed perfect. Didn’t even have to sell it to my kid. He goes away to a free camp and comes out with a career.
He took full advantage. Galley Card, Oiler Card, OS Card, AB Card, and Junior Mechanic (I think that’s what the engineer card was).
Only program on the West Coast making ABs that was a public program in an area gagging for ABs. You can get it privately to the tune of $20K.
So for that program, good for the country and good for the man. He’s working for Washington State Ferries right now earning $80K/year and he’s 24.
But it’s just a data point.
That’s my evidence. I stand by it. Both of my cousins did amazing because of Job Corps.
And I’d rather pay for a program that gets people into the workforce, despite their really shitty circumstances their parents put them in.
And I just gave three examples, and you and I know there isn’t enough space to list everything.
But it’s a wash. The USA will never recover from unconstitutional programs when they don’t study the Constitution. So just enjoy the ride.
“And I’d rather pay for a program that gets people into the workforce,…”
Except that it doesn’t. Did you not read the article? The fact that two of your relatives managed to do well on it does not make this stupid program cost effective.
People like you are why nothing ever changes.
L
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