The Old Dominion Job Corps Center in Monroe, one of two contractor-run campuses in the state facing an uncertain future after the U.S. Department of Labor moved to pause operations nationwide. (Photo courtesy of Old Dominion Job Corps Center)
When Savannah Higgins walked through the doors of the Old Dominion Job Corps Center in Monroe back in 2010, she was 19, directionless, and unsure of how to turn her ambition into reality.
Raised in northern Virginia by a single mother while her father was incarcerated for most of her childhood, Higgins had graduated high school but was stuck — “feeling stagnant,” she recalls — without the money, guidance, or stability to take her next step.
What she found at Job Corps was more than a career training program. It was housing, meals, structure, and a support network — the basics she needed to focus on learning skills and rebuilding her confidence.
“Job Corps bridged the gap between high school and the next chapters of my life,” she said. “This program doesn’t just teach trades; it saves lives by meeting people where they are, providing stability, and instilling the belief that they can succeed.”
Fifteen years later, Higgins is a licensed social worker with a doctorate, a U.S. Army veteran, and an adjunct professor at three universities. She’s also a wife and mother of two.
And now, as the U.S. Department of Labor presses forward with plans to pause operations at contractor-run Job Corps centers nationwide — including Old Dominion and Blue Ridge in Virginia — she’s worried the same lifeline that helped her could be ripped away for thousands of young people.
“The proposed closure of Job Corps centers would be devastating,” Higgins said. “Closing the doors will close doors on countless opportunities for individuals to gain the tools and resources they need to turn their lives around. The ripple effect of that loss would be felt for generations.”
A sudden national directive
On May 29, the Department of Labor (DOL) verbally notified all Job Corps contractors that operations at 99 centers across the country would end immediately “for convenience.” Written orders followed within hours, instructing operators to start dismissing students by June 2 and fully close by June 6.
The move would have displaced roughly 35,000 students nationwide — about one in five of them homeless or housing insecure — along with thousands of employees.
The DOL framed the decision as a “phased pause” to allow an “orderly transition,” citing a $140 million program deficit in 2024 and a projected $213 million deficit in 2025. An internal review, officials said, had raised concerns about safety incidents, low graduation rates and high costs.
“Job Corps was created to help young adults build a pathway to a better life,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in the announcement. “However, a startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis reveal the program is no longer achieving the intended outcomes students deserve.”
The department pointed to 2023 metrics showing an average graduation rate of 38.6% and an average annual cost of over $80,000 per student. Chavez-DeRemer said the administration remains committed to helping affected students connect with other education and employment opportunities.
Court steps in
The closures haven’t happened — yet. On June 3, a federal judge granted a Temporary Restraining Order halting the DOL’s action.
Later in June, the court issued a national preliminary injunction keeping the centers open while lawsuits proceed. More than 20 state attorneys general filed briefs supporting the challenge, arguing the closures would cause “devastating harm” to vulnerable youth and local economies. Members of Virginia’s congressional delegation are also weighing in.
U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Newport News, chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said the abruptness of the DOL’s decision raised serious legal and ethical concerns.
“The decision was made abruptly without notice and put a lot of people kind of in a lurch,” Scott said in an interview with The Mercury shortly before he hosted a workforce community forum in his district earlier this week.
“Many people participating in Job Corps actually live on campus,” Scott said. “So when you close the campus, you really put them out on the street.”
Scott noted that Job Corps is funded by law and that the administration has a legal duty to operate it.
“These are opportunities people have been given,” he said. “To qualify for Job Corps, you have to be out of school, not working. You’re given an opportunity to develop skills for high-demand jobs. To take that away overnight makes no sense.”
Three centers, hundreds of students
Launched in 1964 as part of then-President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty campaign, the Job Corps program was created under the Economic Opportunity Act to provide free education and vocational training to disadvantaged young Americans.
Designed as a residential program modeled partly after the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, it aimed to tackle both youth unemployment and skills shortages in the economy.
Over the decades, Job Corps has evolved to meet shifting workforce demands, adding training in fields like health care, information technology, and advanced manufacturing while maintaining its original mission of lifting young people out of poverty through hands-on skills training and supportive services.
Virginia’s three Job Corps facilities — Old Dominion in Monroe, Blue Ridge near Marion, and Flatwoods Civilian Conservation Center in Coeburn — collectively serve hundreds of students each year. Between July and April, Old Dominion and Blue Ridge enrolled 308 students.
Together, they house about 163 at a time, many of them without stable housing or family support. Each center specializes in training tied to regional job markets, from construction and manufacturing to health care and conservation work.
The pause order immediately threatened two of those facilities — Old Dominion and Blue Ridge — which fall under the contractor-run category targeted by the DOL. Flatwoods, run by the U.S. Forest Service, remains unaffected.
For rural communities like Amherst County and Smyth County, these centers are more than education hubs. They pump an average of $10 million a year into their local economies, employing about 150 people each, and contracting with dozens of local vendors. Graduates contribute millions more through their increased earning potential.
Economic shockwaves
Scott said shutting down centers wouldn’t just hurt students — it would ripple through local economies.
“In the communities where they exist, you’ve got a lot of people not working who are on the way to having high-demand jobs where they can contribute to the economy,” he said. “You have employers who rely on Job Corps to fill vacancies that are otherwise hard to fill.”
U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Virginia Democrats, blasted the administration’s move as “incredibly short-sighted.”
“For decades, the Job Corps program has transformed lives in Virginia and across the country by helping to equip young people with the skills and resources they need to succeed,” Warner said in a statement in May. “We should be investing more in opportunities that lift up our young people, strengthen our workforce, and have a tremendous economic impact in the commonwealth.”
Kaine called Job Corps “a lifeline” for at-risk youth. “Instead of working to further invest in the program, the Labor Department has made the shameful choice to give up on thousands of vulnerable young Americans,” he said.
Nationwide, Job Corps trains tens of thousands of young adults annually in more than 100 trades across 10 industries — from welding and construction to nursing and homeland security.
Over 80% of graduates find employment within six months, according to federal data.
Scott said that the pipeline is critical for Virginia industries already struggling to find qualified workers. In Hampton Roads, for example, shipbuilding and repair companies face chronic shortages. “Job Corps is very helpful in providing employees that can help in high-demand areas,” he said.
Without it, Scott warned, “you’re not just hurting the individuals. You’re hurting businesses that can’t meet their work requirements.”
The DOL’s Transparency Report, however, painted a grim picture: high per-student costs, low graduation rates, and more than 14,900 “serious incident” reports in 2023, including 372 sexual assaults, 1,764 acts of violence, and 2,702 drug use cases.
Supporters acknowledge the program isn’t perfect but say its flaws should be addressed through reform, not elimination. Warner and Kaine both said fiscal and safety concerns “need to be addressed” — but argued the answer isn’t closing doors on those who have nowhere else to go.
Scott echoed that sentiment. “If you’re going to phase out a program, you do it in a way that people aren’t harmed,” he said. “This was just an order to shut down without any consideration of the consequences.”
Political and legal stakes
With the injunction in place, Job Corps centers remain open — for now. But the reprieve is temporary, and the legal battle could drag on for months.
Scott said Congress already acted to protect the program by funding it in the current appropriations bill. “That’s the law of the land,” he said. If the Trump administration wants to rescind the money, “there’s a process for that, and I can pretty much guarantee it wouldn’t pass. There’s too much bipartisan support.”
The Mercury has reached out to Republican members of Virginia’s congressional delegation — U.S. Reps. Ben Cline, John McGuire, and Morgan Griffith — for comment on the Job Corps pause but has not received a response.
Supporters point to letters signed by hundreds of lawmakers from both parties in June urging the administration to reverse course. One, led by Reps. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., described Job Corps as a program that turns “homeless youth into the welders, electricians, nurses, and mechanics of the future.”
The human cost
For Higgins, the numbers and policy debates matter less than the people she knows will be left behind. She remembers arriving at Old Dominion and feeling, for the first time in years, that her life was on a track.
“You can’t expect anyone to better their situation, let alone help others, when they don’t have their basic needs met,” she said, referencing the “Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs” pyramid taught in social work.
“At the very bottom are the basic necessities to survive with self-actualization at the top where we are free to become the most complete and authentic versions of ourselves. Once you have those basic needs met, it’s a bit easier to work on other things like friendships, education, or careers.”
Higgins said the friends she made through the program remain some of her closest allies. Many, like her, have gone on to careers and families they never imagined before Job Corps.
“Without Job Corps, I might have never joined the military, pursued higher education, or found the career I have today,” she said. “The ripple effect of that loss would be felt for generations, as fewer people are given the stability, skills, and confidence to reach their full potential.”
As the legal case moves ahead, Virginia Career Works and other local partners are working with students to prepare for the possibility of disruption — finding temporary housing, arranging transportation and helping with job placement.
But for now, students at Old Dominion and Blue Ridge are still in class, still living on campus and still hoping the fight in Washington will keep their futures intact.
Scott said that hope is well-placed — but warned the threat hasn’t passed.
“The injunction is good news, but it’s temporary,” he said. “The ultimate decision will be in court, and Congress needs to keep making clear this program is here to stay.”
Higgins is holding on to that same hope, even as she fears for those still searching for the sense of purpose she once found in Monroe.
“The proposed closure of Job Corps centers would be devastating,” she said.
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