If your Spring Clean-Up needs something extra to fill the rubbish bin, this news might offer two items to consider. It’s a tale of federal largess, and a tale of missing the point in telling the tale.
With compliments to the Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak for exposing the absurdly expensive federal program, one next can, perhaps, nudge him for neglecting to study the heart of the matter.
Rosiak notes:
“A Labor Department program designed to train 16- to 24-year-olds to join the workforce spends more per person annually than Ivy League colleges, but participants wind up making minimum wage on average — raising questions about whether it should continue to exist.”
But the core problem is not the outcome. The problem is the unconstitutional department’s unconstitutional expenditure of tax money and their immoral assumption that they in government know better than we do how to spend the fruits of our labor. Even if the program had resulted in “graduates” getting high-paying jobs, the force at the heart of it – force to make people pay – and the lack of any constitutional authority ought to be what “raise questions about whether it should continue to exist.”
According to a government “Transparency Report,” this “Job Corps” -- a relic of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society -- spends up to a staggering $764,000 PER GRADUATE to train individuals who then limp into the workforce earning a paltry $17,000 annually, on average, indicating that, perhaps, the Job Corps’ greatest value has been to show people how wasteful government can be.
But, of course, the waste, per se, is not really the key problem.
The Department of Labor is a constitutional abomination. Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution -- y’know, that pesky document meant to clearly define and limit federal power -- does it grant Congress or the executive branch authority to create a sprawling bureaucracy meddling in employment, training, or wage-setting. The Tenth Amendment is crystal clear: powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states or the people. Yet, since its inception in 1913, the Department of Labor has thumbed its nose at this principle, ballooning into a multi-billion-dollar behemoth that justifies its existence through programs like Job Corps, which make a mockery of fiscal responsibility and individual liberty.
Job Corps, itself, launched in 1964 as part of LBJ’s war on poverty, was sold as a lifeline for disadvantaged youth, offering residential training to equip them for stable careers. Noble in theory, perhaps, but in practice, it’s a case study in government ineptitude. The program’s 2024 budget clocked in at $1.7 billion to operate 121 centers nationwide, serving a mere 14,365 students. That’s an average of $118,000 per participant, with costs at some centers spiking to the aforementioned $764,000 per graduate.
A family could send someone to an Ivy League university for a fraction of that -- or, better yet, let them keep their own money and chart their own path.
The outcomes? Abysmal. The Transparency Report reveals that 55% of Job Corps participants either drop out or are expelled, and only 20% secure employment or further education within a year of leaving. Those who do find work earn a median of $17,000 annually—barely above the federal poverty line for a single person. Compare that to the private sector, where trade schools and apprenticeships routinely produce skilled workers for a fraction of the cost, without dipping into the public trough. The free market, driven by voluntary exchange and competition, consistently outperforms government monopolies. Yet, Job Corps persists, propped up by for-profit contractors who, as Rosiak notes, have a vested interest in hiding the program’s failures to keep the federal spigot flowing.
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Notes Rosiak:
“Contractors pay recruiting bonuses for finding prospects, and participants are paid to take part in the program in addition to covering their room, board, and medical. One recent graduate told The Daily Wire that contractors conceal the program’s failure to keep the cash coming, and that many participants wind up working in menial jobs they could have done without the expensive training.”
And he does not mince words about the criminality that often arises within the various campuses of the Job Corps.
“The Daily Wire reported this month that thousands of young people have been the victims of assault and other crimes at Job Corps campuses, including a transgender-identifying girl (a biological female) who was assigned to live with a 23-year-old man who was charged with raping her.
A decade of oversight by government auditors and news media has found that the program attracts criminals and that some staff look the other way to avoid expelling members, which would lead to lost revenue — or negative attention — which could jeopardize the program.”
It would be nice if enough Americans were familiar with, or concerned about, the U.S. Constitution that they might question the very idea of Johnson’s boondoggle. It began through immorality, and sees more popping up on campus.
“At the Old Dominion campus with 95 enrollees, the campus officially reported 46 disciplinary infractions. At the Gary campus in San Marcos, Texas, there were 633 disciplinary incidents among 1,191 enrollees. The Oconaluftee campus in Cherokee, North Carolina, had 205 infractions over 162 enrollees, amounting to more than one per person.”
Charming.
Of course, the more revelations about Job Corps are seen by Americans, the more chances there are for people to see that government intervention – even in job training -- distorts markets, stifles innovation, and creates dependency. Job Corps doesn’t empower individuals; it traps them in a cycle of bureaucratic inefficiency, offering false promises while undermining the very self-reliance it claims to foster.
Moreover, the program’s structure reeks of cronyism. For-profit companies like MTC and Adams and Associates run Job Corps centers, raking in millions while delivering shoddy outcomes. The Transparency Report highlights how these operators often conceal data on dropouts and failures, ensuring their contracts renew despite abysmal performance.
The solution is simple: defund Job Corps and dismantle the Department of Labor.
Government is very bad at following market trends or predicting market needs. Return those powers to individuals and private institutions. As economist F.A. Hayek noted, the spontaneous order of free individuals making voluntary choices always trumps top-down planning.
Throwing money at a parasitic government system doesn’t help the vulnerable—it exploits them. Private charities, community organizations, and local businesses have a far better track record of providing targeted, effective support without the bureaucratic bloat. And let’s not forget: the best anti-poverty program is a job, created by a free market unencumbered by federal meddling and central plans.
The Job Corps scandal is a microcosm of everything wrong with the federal leviathan: unconstitutional overreach, grotesque inefficiency, and a callous disregard for the taxpayers footing the bill. It’s time to pull the plug—not just on Job Corps, but on the entire Department of Labor. Let’s come closer to restoring the Constitution, unleashing the market, and respecting each individual’s freedom to forge his or her own future. Anything less is a betrayal of the principles that made America great.
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