The Department of Labor said Thursday that it will “begin a phased pause” of an almost $2 billion federal job training program that has persisted since 1964 despite a dubious record.
The Job Corps houses a mix of runaway teens and 20-something ex-cons in residential campuses, where 16- to 24-year-olds are paid to receive their GED diplomas and training in several trades.
For decades, there has been evidence that monetary incentives have led to fraud, with contractors — who get paid bonuses for recruiting students and for having positive job-placement statistics — cooking the books to misrepresent post-graduation job outcomes, and tolerating criminal behavior on campus to avoid the loss of federal dollars that would come from expulsions.
Contractors, including large for-profit companies, operate 99 of the Job Corps’ 131 facilities. Those contracts were “terminated for…
