INDIANA — The largest federal program offering free education and job training to young people across the nation, including many low-income residents of Indiana, has been ordered to suspend operations indefinitely.
This closure significantly affects local Job Corps sites across the nation. Hundreds of young adults seeking a pathway to stability and success have depended on the services it provides.
“I got to figure it out all over again,” said Camille Morgan, a 21-year-old resident of the Atterbury Job Corps campus.
For Morgan and many of her peers, the campus served as “a home” when many of them had no place else to go. Like many others, Morgan relied on the federal program that provides young people aged 16-24 with free housing, but also education and job and life skills training.
“It was going to give me a future, a career. It was a start over,” she explained, stating that the program had provided opportunities for her to gain her driver's license and develop trade skills.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced last week that all contracted Job Corps sites, including the residential facility in Attebury and the Indypendence satellite site in downtown Indianapolis, would close for now. Combined, they can serve more than 500 kids every year.
Directors say it's helped Hoosiers earn their diplomas, go on to college or the military, along with filling gaps in trade for the last 60 years in Indiana.
This decision follows funding cuts initiated during the Trump administration.
Renee Wolf, the Center Director for both Indiana Job Corps, told WRTV the decision is disheartening.
“Friday morning, we were notified we needed to start having students off campus starting Monday. We still have about 80 left that we're working in the community to provide them a safe place to live… I’m heartbroken. I’m angry,” she said.
The Department of Labor said its decision is in line with the Trump Administration's 2026 budget.
However, local directors argue that this assessment is misleading.
Wolf told WRTV that the rate is above 60% at the Atterbury site, and even higher in Indianapolis.
“The graduation rates currently are 85-90%. During COVID, those graduation rates were 35%. We weren't enrolling students, and students weren't graduating. So obviously that particular report is a little misleading,” stated Reginald Porter, who has worked with the Job Corps program for nearly 20 years and seen it impact thousands of Hoosiers.
Hoosiers like 18-year-old Johnae Journey, a recent graduate of the program.
“If I would have stayed in regular high school, I just feel like I wouldn't be where I'm at right now,” said Journey. “I'm heading to Grand Canyon University. I am fully committed. I have a full ride. My tuition is fully paid thanks to Job Corps Indypendencr.”
Another is Emmanuel Marc, a Haitian immigrant who graduated from the program and is now teaching there.
“I wanted to teach other students how the program helped me,” Marc told WRTV.
“It’s detrimental, you have young adults in this program getting a high school diploma, getting a trade, and now that is no longer. We’re not going down without a fight,” added Porter.
Local sites told WRTV they are working to find alternative programs for the hundreds of students they serve.
The closure would also mean over 200 staff would lose their job.
The Indiana programs are now speaking out against the decision and have joined a lawsuit against the Trump Administration to block the move.
In a release, the U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said:
“A startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis reveal the program is no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve. We remain committed to ensuring all participants are supported through this transition and connected with the resources they need to succeed as we evaluate the program’s possibilities.”
All of the operations at the contracted centers were ordered to be paused by June 30.
It remains unclear how long that will last.
