Bob Confer’s post in the New American talks about how the US Government has created poverty instead of alleviating its presence.  He briefly mentions Job Corps as one of the wasteful programs that deserves a discerning look. Confer mentions the “redundancy” of Job Corps and the fact that its programs are duplicated elsewhere  in the private sector and schools. Redundancy is apparently another rationale for saying that Job Corps is expensive and should be eliminated.
I think why Job Corps has survived the “redundancy” accusation is because it’s highly touted as being the program of last resort for those who have been kicked out of high school, for the juvenile delinquents and misfits and for those who can’t read. It’s a place to gather all “these” kids together and present Job Corps as a “one of a kind” program that isn’t duplicated anywhere else. It’s not the program Job Corps is selling, it’s the attendees. And the message is: “Look how we take these inner city delinquents and cure them of their gang affiliations”, or, “Everyone else has given up on certain students, just give us six months and we’ll turn them around and give them a new attitude, a high school diploma and a trade on top of it all”. Unfortunately, if it sounds too good to be true, most of the time it’s a lie.
Job Corps also has other kinds of attendees, the student who, for some reason or another wasn’t able to complete high school, or, the student from a broken family who is looking for an education and some stability. Sometimes, kids without any behavioral problems at all enroll because they think it’s a place where they’ll get a quality, free, education and they believe what the glossy brochures and smooth talking recruiters tell them. I’ve spoken to those “other” kinds of students and heard the stories about the gangs, beat downs and blanket parties. I’ve heard about the prevalence of drugs in the dorms and on campus. As a staff, I’ve also seen known drug-dealer students kept on the attendance rolls because we needed “the numbers”. Last, I’ve seen the stars slowly fade from student’s eyes when they suspect that they aren’t getting the dream of the education they deserve or when they notice that the overworked and underpaid teachers or staff don’t have the time to spend with them.
Sure, there are a few Job Corps students who do a complete turn-around, but unfortunately, they are the minority. The vast majority are proved, through corrected statistics and scientific evidence that they are no better off than before they enrolled. What gives? Why are we paying for this program? I believe that we too have stars in our eyes and want to believe that there is a magic bullet “out there” that will, once and for all, cure the troubled youth of our century and for now, Job Corps fulfills the fairly tale. We need the “dream” as much as the kids do…
Filed under: Job Corps, Kittrell Job Corps Center, Newspaper Reports, number manipulation, politics, Shriver Job Corps Center, Bob Confer, Job Corps, New American, poverty, redundant, The American Dream
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