In publishing this Congressional Testimony from Congressman John Duncan (TN) (1998) I ask my readers, “What has changed about Job Corps since this speech was given before Congress?”
1. The cost of participation for each Job Corps student has increased yearly to $28,000 per student and $1.7 billion per year.
2. Even more proof of fraud and mismanagement of funds by contractors and Job Corps has been exposed by the Office by The Office of the Attorney General in the past twelve years. The fines and repayments have increasingly amounted to the millions of dollars since this was published.
3. Much of Job Corps evidence of success has been based on flawed, unscientific studies that subsequently were proved to be number manipulation by the federal contractors and center operators.
4. It should have made national front page news when actual scientific studies proved that Job Corps had little or no influence on students earning power or increased the success of its attendees.
See this blog for the 2008 outcome study and David Mulhausen’s PhD 2008 report here:
It is important for us to learn the history of Job Corps and to read the older reports in order to see how the proof of wrong doing in Job Corps is increasing, not lessening. Job Corps’ “truth” is well hidden by the media and sophisticated communications and public relations specialists in order to present a positive image to the public.
excerpts from Mr. Duncan’s testimony:
“However, one of its programs has become one of the most wasteful and inefficient in the entire Federal Government and should either do much, much better or be abolished. Yet this agency, because on the surface it appears to be one for young people, seems to believe it should be immune from criticism and simply get one increase after another.
I am speaking of the Job Corps. Today, it costs over $26,000 per year per Job Corps student, according to the GAO. We could give each Job Corps student an allowance of $1,000 a month, send them to some expensive private school and still save money.
The GAO reported in testimony before the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight this past July 29 that only 14 percent of program participants completed the requirements of their vocational training.
*An earlier report found that only 4 percent end up in jobs for which they were trained, unless one does, as the Job Corps has at times done, and grossly distorts and exaggerates the figures and counts as a success about any former student who has gotten any type of job.”
*-Andrea from Job Corps Fraud-
When I worked at Shriver Job Corps in 2009 as an employment coordinator, I saw this practice still being carried out for instance, if a student completed automotive trade and got a job in their uncle’s repair shop as a part-time janitor it was considered a “trade match.”
Filed under: congress, Contractors, Fraud, Government Accounting Office, high costs, Job Corps, Legislative and Congressional Reports, number manipulation, OIG Reports, outcome study, Congressional Testimony, Congressman John Duncan, David Mulhausen, Job Corps Fraud, Job Corps number manipulation, Shriver Job Corps
Job Corps Fraud Blog 
to Stuart , Well said. I know I get alittle emotional. BUT I’VE WORKED IN THIS PROGRAM TWICE, AND OVER A SPANSE OF TIME, SO NO IMPROVEMENT IN THE HONESTLY LEVEL OF THE CONTRACTOR ETR IS JUST THE SAME GROUP THAT WORKED FOR ITT WHEN I WORKED THERE ALOT OF RECYCLED CROOKS. I didn’t like the way the NEW center director in Oneonta motivated students with , CONSTANT and I MEAN CONSTANT, motivational meetings with the students , preaching to them all the stuff they can have at no cost. I’m old school, you don’t make students want to learn, if you tell them it’s a slam dunk that they will get it if they work for it or not.
LikeLike
The Job Training Match classification system was developed by the Dept. of Labor. (You can find the JTM system on-line in the Job Corps PRH) The job match categories are so broad that with a little stretch of the imagination almost any Job Corps graduate can be considered as having a job matched to their training program.
It’s done all the time. That’s why the JTM stat on the OMS10 report looks as good as it does. But look at the job placement statistics on the OMS10 and you get a very different picture.
LikeLike
You can’t work at a Job Corps, UNLESS you are able to cover up and lie about the taxpayers dollars you see being wasted DAILY, over and over again. And unless you can PRETEND that the program is working. IT’S NOT, NEVER HAS, AND HAS WASTED BILLIONS AND BILLIONS ANNUALY , OF PRECIOUS TAX PAYER DOLLARS . THE PROGRAM NEEDS TO BE DISBANDED . SOME ADMINISTRATORS AND DOL , PEOPLE WHO HAVE LOOKED THE OTHER WAY WHEN THEY SAW THIS WASTE NEED TO HAVE JAIL TERMS.
LikeLike
Nancy,
The Job Corps program doesn’t waste billions and billions of dollars annually. It’s yearly budget is about 1.7 billion – so it wastes about 1.7 billion dollars annually. This is bad enough, but let’s not hyperbolize the truth.
I don’t think the program should be disbanded, it should be cleaned up. Get rid of the contractors and hire real educators to run the centers. Do you see these kinds of problems at residential colleges? No, and please don’t tell me it’s because Job Corps services a different population. That’s not the reason why the system has so many problems.
The Federal government has no business running this program. Anything the Federal government oversees will be full of corruption and fraud because of politicization. Under the guise of competitive (it’s definitely not competitive) contract bidding, these Fascist contractors become very wealthy, while dumbing down the education system, and producing students who can’t read at a ninth grade level. Talk about sabotaging our country – and keeping a permanent underclass that they can exploit….
And what can you expect from a program run on a shoe-string budget (It is considered expensive because it is a residential program which provides much more than the cost of education and training during a school day. In fact, its teachers and counselors earn much less than teachers in the public school system.) using inferior materials – from the buildings to the education and training equipment to the staffing. It is an embarrassment when public school educators (or private school, as well) come on a center and see the environment in which we have to work.
Here’s an idea – require sixteen-yr-olds to remain in high school and not enter Job Corps until they are eighteen – the way it used to be back in the early eighties. That will stabilize things a bit, even though the real problems lie with the contractors and the misguided government representatives we elect over and over who are pigging out at the trough. (This is an insult to pigs, by the way.)
LikeLike