Disdain For The Poor: Job Corps Shutdown Sparks Outrage

By Stacy M. Brown, Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

For over six decades, Job Corps has been one of the most effective federal programs aimed at helping disadvantaged youth overcome poverty. Created as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Economic Opportunity Act of 1964—a cornerstone of his War on Poverty—Job Corps has helped millions of low-income Americans gain education, housing, job skills, and a pathway to employment, particularly African Americans and other marginalized communities. Now, in what critics are calling a direct assault on America’s poor and working-class youth, the Trump administration is suspending operations at all Job Corps centers nationwide. The Department of Labor’s decision made public on May 30, has already resulted in thousands of students being