Judge blocks Trump administration’s effort to eliminate Job Corps

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By Dietrich Knauth

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Wednesday temporarily stopped the Trump administration from moving ahead with an effort to eliminate the Job Corps, the largest U.S. job training program for low-income youth.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter in Manhattan issued a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit filed by a trade group representing contractors that operate Job Corps centers. Carter ordered the government not to terminate Job Corps contractors or stop work at Job Corps centers until a further ruling in the case, and he ordered the Labor Department to appear at a court hearing on June 17.

The lawsuit alleges that the U.S. Department of Labor is violating federal law and its own regulations by abruptly shuttering the program, a plan the agency announced last week.

Job Corps was created by Congress in 1964 and allows 16-to-24-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds to obtain high school diplomas or an equivalent, vocational certificates and licenses and on-the-job training. The program currently serves about 25,000 people at 120 Job Corps centers run by contractors.

The Labor Department in announcing the end of the program said it was not cost effective, had a low graduation rate and was not placing participants in stable jobs. The department also said there had been thousands of instances of violence, drug use and security breaches at Job Corps centers.

The National Job Corps Association and other plaintiffs in Tuesday’s lawsuit said the Labor Department does not have the power to dismantle a program established and funded by Congress.

Shuttering Job Corps is a small piece of a broader effort by Trump, a Republican, and his appointees to drastically shrink the federal bureaucracy, including by getting rid of some offices and agencies altogether.

(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth in New York and Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)