The Job Corps program from 1965-1979

The Job Corps is one of the social programs inaugurated by the Johnson administration (the Great Society) in its quest to reduce poverty in the United States. From its inception in 1964, the program was seriously attacked by antipoverty critics. President Johnson, and later Congress, held out the promise that a sojourn in a center would transform school dropouts who came from poverty homes, and who had multiple problems, into well-adjusted, motivated, upward-mobile youths. Opponents, on the other hand, ignored the true potential of the potential of the program and emphasized only the high costs of running residential centers, and some stories about enrollees' transgressions. It is a testament to the Job Corps that it survived the continuing attacks levelled against it by opponents of the program. Moreover the sharp cuts in budget funds suffered by the program under the Nixon administration brought it close to extinction. The experience of the Job Corps over a decade and a half provides a reasonable degree of evidence that provision of residential facilities, including education and some training is a proper, indeed an essential element of a comprehensive program to those who do not succeed in their first chance to acquire the necessary education and training to function effectively in the complex American society. There is merit in the basic concept of separating youths from their home environments and providing them with a comprehensive package of support and services in addition to education and training.