Future of the Sierra Nevada Job Corps Still Unsure After Possible Final Graduation Ceremony

Antonio Bowen tried to uplift, with a rallying speech, the somber mood of the families and students gathered at what could be the last graduation for those involved with the Sierra Nevada Job Corp.

“If you don’t see the change you want, you do it yourself. Don’t think you won’t come out with nothing. No matter the cards you are dealt, remember you are on top of it,” said Bowen, a 2018 graduate of the program adding, “we’ve got to tell Congress this program is worth saving.”

The Sierra Nevada Job Corps Center located in Reno, is the Northern Nevada employment training program otherwise known as AmeriCorps. The local facility and has existed for 46 years contributing to the community by providing support to students ages 16 to 24 entering the vocational trades. However, the Trump Administration announced on May 29 that it will defund the national organization. The Department of Labor (DOL) announced all job corps facilities would have to shut by June 30.

However on June 4, New York Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr. ordered a halt to the closure of AmeriCorps until a hearing on June 17. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal (RGJ) the injunction comes from a lawsuit filed against the administration stating that the closures is a violation against federal law.

The order states the closure would “displace tens of thousands of vulnerable young people, destroying companies that have long operated Job Corps centers in reliance on the Government’s support for the program, and forcing mass layoffs of workers who support the program” and that “Congress contemplated that DOL could close individual Job Corps centers, but did not provide authorization for DOL to cancel the program wholesale. And Congress has imposed specific guardrails on the closure of any individual Job Corps campus.”

Leslie Mix, the business relations specialist for Sierra Nevada Job Corps, reacted positively to the temporary restraining order.

“That means that neither our students nor our staff have to leave for now. This is a great relief to all of us,” she said as she thanked by email local supporters. “The Call to Action to Save the Job Corps program is working. Please keep up your awesome efforts!”

The goal of the program is to train people in a trade with the hope that they will fill in the gaps of work in a local community. Usually the job corps benefits smaller or more impoverished areas that otherwise wouldn’t have the means to staff businesses or organizations. In Reno, the students are also housed and fed directly at the facility.

The graduation for the 76 students on June 3 was moved up a week due to the impending cuts. Many families from Las Vegas weren’t able to make the trip. Despite the changed schedule, students and staff worked hard to make sure those who were set to graduate were still able to.

“I was both shocked and ecstatic that so many members came in support of these graduates,” Mix said.

Noticiero Movil reached out to the offices of Congressman Mark Amodei (R) and Senators Jacky Rosen (D) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D) but did not receive a response before publication. The senators did send staff members to the graduation.

Even though Amodei did not send a representative, he recently told the RGJ that he’s, “just one of those guys who think it has value since I basically grew up with the Job Corps in western Nevada my whole life … If you come to the conclusion that (zeroing out funding for Job Corps) is not a good policy, then I’ll vote against it.”

Senator Jacky Rosen did tweet her relief about the temporary block to the program’s closure. She wrote that the Job Corp is a program that must be permanently protected and fully funded.

According to CBS News, more than 1,000 AmeriCorps jobs could still to be terminated as a result of the federal cuts.

Nationwide, the programs help more than 5 million Americans find work. Roughly, the cost of maintaining each student is around $80,000.

For the Trump Administration, the funds are “not a good use of money,” citing that the cost to maintain each student is too much compared to what the student would make once they start working their job. Their statistics claim that only about 39% of students end up graduating.

However, Sierra Nevada Job Corps Director Rocky Flanary told the crowd that over 51% of their students end up graduating, which is higher than most community colleges, and 75% of students end up finding a job after graduation. Employment usually happens in auto mechanic shops, construction sites, in restaurants, medical offices and other relatable fields like security.

The federal claim also doesn’t take into account the impact the loss of a student would have on a given community. One skilled worker trained in the art of cooking can be the difference between a local restaurant surviving or not.

“Not everyone has to go to college. Someone has to build things, somebody has to fix things, someone has to take care of other people,” Flanary said in his graduation remarks.

“I don’t know if the Administration is looking to replace what we have, but why replace it when we have all the infrastructure in place. There is no replacement for this program.”