‘Keep your goddamn hands off of Job Corps’: Lori Trahan, Jim McGovern push against Job Corps cuts

DEVENS — Before Zach Shepard joined the Job Corps program, he knew nothing about working with cars.

Since he graduated from the federal program in 2013, however, Shepard has made a career in the automotive industry, working his way up from a position as a technician to now being a parts manager for Herb Chambers’ largest dealership. Without the Job Corps program, Shepard said he would not be where he is today.

On Wednesday, Shepard and other Job Corps graduates joined U.S. Reps. Lori Trahan and Jim McGovern at a small rally outside the Shriver Job Corps facility in Devens to advocate against the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the Job Corps program.

Administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, there are more than 120 Job Corps facilities across the country, including three in Massachusetts. Each one is meant to provide vocational training, academic instruction and support services for individuals aged 16 to 24 who meet low-income and other eligibility requirements to help kick-start or further their careers.

Now, like many other federal programs and services, Job Corps is on the chopping block for federal spending, which Shepard questioned after seeing the benefits of the program firsthand.

“In school they kept pushing college, and now everybody is pushing trades, and now we want to get rid of stuff like this?” Shepard said at the rally.

The rally was meant to highlight the real-world impact of the federal program, with Trahan questioning why it should be cut at a time when the Trump administration claims to want to support trades.

“On May 28, Donald Trump stood in the Oval Office and said the federal government should be investing in trade schools instead of colleges,” said Trahan from a podium across the street from the Shriver facility. “But the very next day his secretary of labor announced a plan to shut down the Job Corps program, including facilities like the one behind us.”

Rather than “looking at the data,” Trahan said the Department of Labor under Trump has “unilaterally moved forward with their plan to halt the important work happening at Job Corps centers like this one.”

The halting of the Job Corps’ work has been paused through a lawsuit filed by the National Job Corps Association and a temporary restraining order issued by the courts. After an extension on that court order, it is set to expire Wednesday.

“This uncertainty has already caused real harm. Students were told to pack up and leave, and many still haven’t returned,” said Trahan. “And because the Department of Labor terminated the national background check contracts months ago, new students cannot enroll.”

McGovern opened with a more pointed defense of the program.

“Keep your goddamn hands off of Job Corps,” said McGovern, directed at the Trump administration. “Job Corps is one of the best programs our country has ever created for expanding economic opportunities and enriching our communities. For 60 years it has helped young people of all backgrounds, and especially those who have faced difficulties that no young person should ever have to go through, access education, vocational training and employment.”

Previous graduates of the program in attendance Wednesday each said they greatly benefited from participating.

One Job Corps graduate, Harrison Ingels, now a high school English teacher, said he was a student at Shriver in 2007. He said anyone opposed to the program should “take a step from the outside and look, unbiased, at this program.”

“This program offers opportunities for students to become contributing members of society who want to get hands-on trade experience and contribute to the workforce,” said Ingels.

At 18, Ingels had lost both his parents, and had nowhere to go. For him, Job Corps was “a roof over my head.”

“It is inexplicable to me that we would remove the option to become a contributing member, and in some cases take away homes and futures, from students who are trying to do the right thing, and they are left with the alternatives of potentially being homeless or enroll in the military,” said Ingels. “That doesn’t seem right to me. It doesn’t seem like we are making our best efforts to ensure the best economy and best futures for our students.”

“It is not hard to see what is going on here. To this White House, any program in this country that doesn’t enrich billionaires or glorify our man-child of a president is something to be destroyed,” said McGovern, adding later that the Trump administration’s attempt to end the program unilaterally is “obviously unlawful.”

Trahan also read a statement of support for Job Corps by U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey.

“Job Corps has long been a gateway to opportunity for teenagers and young adults eager to earn their high school degree, learn critical skills and enter the workforce. The students here at Shriver and at centers in Grafton, Westover and across the country are living proof of Job Corps’ importance to our community,” said part of the joint statement from Warren and Markey. “By suspending Job Corps center operations, the Trump administration is slamming the gate shut on young people striving for a better future. These actions disrupt their hard work toward a stable career and jeopardize their housing and education, all to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.”