The handwriting is on the wall for the Job Corps.
The message is that either this operation must tighten its belt and do a better job of training troubled youngsters to become productive workers - or it must undergo a painful shakeup.That much should be clear from the recent move by the Senate Labor Committee, which approved legislation that would close 25 of the most troubled Job Corps centers, freeze funding at current levels, and turn administration of the programs over to the 46 states where the Job Corps operates.
The Senate measure flies in the face of a House bill that would establish block grants for the Job Corps but retain it as a federal operation.
It won't be easy for the Job Corps to overcome the long and mounting criticism it has been receiving, criticism bolstered by a scathing new report from the General Accounting Office.
The GAO found that only a third of those enrolled in Job Corps training programs complete the required vocational training, and only 60 percent of the graduates get jobs. Even among those who find work, half are gone from the job in the first two months. What's more, the program handles 63,000 youths a year at an average cost of $15,300 each - compared to $3,700 for other Labor Department training programs.
Fortunately for Utah, this state's two Job Corps centers have been ranked among the very best in the nation - with the Weber Basin Civilian Conservation Job Corps Center rated second best and the Clearfield Job Corps Center listed at 19th among the 111 centers throughout the country.
Up to a point, it's unfair to measure the Job Corps by the same yardstick applied to other training programs. The Job Corps is more expensive because it provides residential training. It also deals with youths from poor and unhealthy backgrounds that have contributed to their unemployability, drug abuse and juvenile delinquency.
Moreover, if society does not help these youths to become useful and productive citizens, it will pay a needlessly high cost in terms of more crime and higher welfare burdens.
The proper course, then, is to give the Job Corps some slack but demand concrete progress that can measured in specific terms of cost-effectiveness. This operation is important - but it can and must be improved.