The federally funded Job Corps training centers in Bangor and Limestone, along with nearly 100 other sites across the country, will close at the end of the month.
The U.S. Department of Labor will start a “phased pause in operations” of its 99 contract-operated Job Corps sites on June 30, the agency announced Thursday.
The labor department’s announcement stopped short of saying Job Corps would actually close, but Roger Felix, Loring Job Corps Center’s business engagement coordinator, confirmed the news Monday.
“The closing is the 30th. That’s our latest update,” Felix said. “We’re getting the students off center and sending them home.”
Job Corps is an education and career training program offered at no cost to low-income young people ages 16 to 24. There are more than 120 campuses across the country, according to Job Corps. In Maine, it also operates outreach and admissions at locations in Brewer, Augusta and Portland.
The program is unique in that students pay no tuition. Instead of earning a degree, they leave with certifiable job skills that they can take into the workforce or college. Nationwide, the program serves 25,000 students.
The Loring Job Corps Center opened in 1997 in Limestone on part of the former Loring Air Force Base. The Penobscot facility opened in 1980. The halt in operations means 25,000 at-risk and lower-income students across the country, including nearly 500 in Maine, will lose their workforce training.
The closures are the latest in a series of federal cuts since the start of the Trump administration that have threatened Maine’s universities, home heating assistance program and more.
Previously, the labor department announced April 1 it would stop enrollment at Maine’s two Job Corps centers, blaming rising costs.
In its latest directive, labor officials cited poor finances and low graduation rates.
Job Corps costs an average of $80,285 per student each year and has a nationwide graduation rate of 38 percent, according to a report the Department of Labor issued on April 25 for program year 2023, the most recent year from which data was available. In addition, centers had nearly 15,000 rule infractions that year, including drug use, assault and other violence, the report found.
That year, the Penobscot center cost $91,118 per student and had a graduation rate of 49 percent, with 70 rule infractions, according to the report. At Loring, annual costs per student were $59,732 with a graduation rate of 38 percent, and 91 infractions were reported.
“Job Corps was created to help young adults build a pathway to a better life through education, training, and community,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement. “However, 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.”
The department said it would work with state and local partners to help students find training and employment.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has repeatedly urged the federal government to keep Job Corps operating.
She wrote to Chavez-DeRemer on April 14, urging the department to lift the enrollment ban. The Loring center, which housed 228 students and 129 staff members, trains workers for many companies, including Bath Iron Works and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and also for military service, Collins wrote.
Though the labor department cited increased costs, the Loring site has operated on the same fixed budget since 2020, she added.
Collins questioned Chavez-DeRemer in a congressional hearing on May 22 and shared the story of Adais Viruet-Torres of Connecticut, who participated at Loring, overcame homelessness and now is a nurse practitioner. And on Thursday, Collins opposed the labor department’s newest decision to stop all Job Corps operations.
“Serving nearly 500 students in Maine, the Loring Job Corps Center and the Penobscot Job Corps Center have become important pillars of support for some of our most disadvantaged young adults,” Collins said in a statement.
Job Corps escaped closure 12 years ago. In January 2013, federal officials froze enrollment in the program nationwide to reduce costs, then reversed the decision when Congress reallocated funding.
The Loring facility has been noted for its academic and community achievements. Its automotive program earned accreditation last year, and in 2022 the center celebrated 25 years of career training.
Its color guard has traveled throughout Maine and beyond. Felix has led the group for many years as it has visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington, Virginia, and posted colors at sporting events, at the Legislature in Augusta and at local events. Those have included two visits to Presque Isle by the D-Day Squadron, a group of World War II-era planes commemorating the Allied victory.
