What you need to know:
- The Don Young Alaska Job Corps Center in Palmer must close by the end of June under an “operations pause” ordered by the U.S. Department of Labor due to rising costs.
- The residential center currently serves 160 students and offers trade school and GED programs. About 80% of the students come from rural villages across the state. Approximately 110 staff members work at the facility. It is the only Job Corps location in Alaska.
- The Department of Labor ordered the closure based on what local Job Corps officials said is COVID-era data that does not reflect current operations. Officials said a trade organization representing Job Corps centers nationwide is planning legal action to stop the shutdown.
PALMER -- A federally funded residential job training center in Palmer must close completely by the end of June and begin sending students home next week under an “operations pause” ordered this week by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The Don Young Alaska Job Corps Center in Palmer is one of more than 100 no-cost residential training centers nationwide operated by Department of Labor contractors. About two dozen additional centers are run by the U.S. Forest Service and focus on conservation-related training, according to the Job Corps website.
Nationwide funding for Job Corps is not currently included in the proposed federal budget for next year.
The program is being paused now because it operated at a $140 million deficit last year and because closing it “reflects the administration’s commitment to ensure federal workforce investments deliver meaningful results for both students and taxpayers,” according to a statement issued Thursday.
The Alaska Center, which opened in 1994, costs about $9 million annually to operate, Director Bobbie Irvin said in an interview Friday. It is run under a Department of Labor contract with Chugach Alaska Corporation, which also operates five centers in the Lower 48, according to their website.
The Palmer location is the only Job Corps facility in Alaska.
Officials with the Washington, D.C.-based National Job Corps Association plan to request a court order halting the shutdown, Irvin said.
A spokesperson for the organization declined to comment on the status of that request.
Job Corps students are between the ages of 16 and 24 and attend trade schools, earn a GED high school equivalency, or both. Students typically live on campus for more than a year, Irvin said.
The Alaska Center currently serves 160 students, most of whom are housed on the 19-acre campus for the duration of their training, Irvin said. The program had about a 70% completion rate last year, and about 80% of students come from rural Alaska villages where no similar educational programs are available, he said. About 90% of graduates are placed in jobs earning an average of $20.34 an hour, he said.
Officials with Chugach said the center has assisted more than 6,000 graduates.
"This center has provided life-changing opportunities to thousands of young Alaskans, many from rural and underserved communities," Virginia Robinson,
an interim president for Chugach Government Solutions, said in a statement. "This decision directly affects not only the students who rely on these opportunities, many of whom are mere weeks away from completing the program, but also the dedicated staff who have committed their careers to supporting them."
Department of Labor officials said the program “has faced significant financial challenges under its current operating structure,” according to the Thursday announcement. A recent “transparency report” also found a nationwide graduation rate of about 39%, with an average annual cost per student of about $80,000, the release said.
But that data does not reflect current operations in Alaska, Irvin said, because it is based on COVID-era spending when enrollment was paused and medical staffing increased. Today, the Alaska program’s annual cost per student is $37,000, he said.
The Labor Department’s statement also cited a “startling number of serious incident reports,” with 14,913 nationwide in 2023, including about 2,700 instances of drug use and about 1,200 breaches of safety and security. A total of 50 “serious incidents” were logged at the Palmer campus, according to the transparency report.
Irvin said that data does not tell the whole story. While the term “serious incident” may suggest crimes or infractions, the log also includes a broad range of other campus events, he said. For example, Department of Labor rules require Job Corps officials to log as “serious incidents” any instance of a student leaving campus without permission or visits by local dignitaries, including a March visit by Rep. Nick Begich, he said.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she plans to push back against the planned closure.
“While some Job Corps centers may be struggling across the country, the Don Young Alaska Job Corps Center stands out as a model of excellence,” she said in a statement. “I oppose the Department’s blanket closure of all Job Corps centers nationwide and am urging Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer to consider the significant loss this would pose not only for Alaska, but for the administration’s resource development goals in the state.”
Officials with Sen. Dan Sullivan's office said the training provided by Job Corps is needed to meet an Executive Order issued by President Donald Trump aimed at boosting the state's natural resource industry.
“Senator Sullivan believes Job Corps is vital to fulfilling President Trump’s order, preparing young Alaskans for the growing number of good-paying jobs that are essential to supporting the major private sector, military and infrastructure investments being made in Alaska," a spokesman for Sullivan said in a statement. "The Senator has consistently supported funding for Job Corps through the annual appropriations process, and will do so again this year. He is also engaging with the Labor Secretary directly to voice Alaskans’ opposition to this closure and to highlight Job Corps’ importance to Alaska’s growing economy.”
Employees at the Alaska Job Corps Center suspected the shutdown was coming after the Labor Department halted background checks for new students about nine weeks ago, Irvin said. Staff and students gathered after Thursday's announcement to discuss next steps, he said.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty, and with the students, there’s a lot of fear,” he said. “Obviously, we’re going to send them back to their village, but that’s not what they want. I have staff who have been here since the center opened 31 years ago, and they are just devastated.”
Chuck Legge, a driving instructor who has worked at the school since 1996, said he believes the national organization will be able to fight off the closure and that the center will ultimately survive.
“We are going to fight this thing, and we think we have a fair chance of beating this right now,” he said. “The focus is to get the word out that this is happening.”
-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com
