Seven months after the Trump administration ordered the shutdown of nearly 100 Job Corps centers nationwide, the centers are still training and enrolling students thanks to a federal judge’s order.
But with Job Corps’ fate uncertain, enrollment is down significantly. Like much of the federal government, Job Corps is currently funded only through Jan. 30.
“We’re trying to get the word out that we never shut down, and we don’t expect to,” said Mac McGoldrick, director of the Tongue Point Job Corps Center in Astoria.
Shutdown was certainly the intent of the Trump administration. On May 29, 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) directed all 99 Job Corps centers that were managed by outside contractors to send students home and close by June 30.
In Oregon, that included Tongue Point, Springdale Job Corps in Troutdale, and a satellite campus of Springdale in Portland. Tongue Point is operated by Management & Training Corporation and Springdale is operated by Human Learning Systems. Both are for-profit contractors.
The National Job Corps Association, the trade association for Job Corps contractors, filed a federal lawsuit to block the closures. A judge issued an order temporarily blocking the closures on June 4, which is still in place. But that didn’t mean enrollment started back up.
The DOL stopped processing background checks for Job Corps applicants March 21, 2025, and didn’t restart until Sept. 1, when there were around 23,000 pending applications nationwide.
The May 29 closure order didn’t cover Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers operated by the U.S. Forest Service, including Wolf Creek in Douglas County, Angell in Yachats, Timber Lake in Estacada — two of which the Trump administration had attempted to close in 2019. But those centers still face an extinction threat from efforts by the Trump administration to zero out the Job Corps budget and end what it calls a “failed” program. Congress hasn’t made a decision on that yet, instead funding almost the entire federal government through a “continuing resolution” that continues funding at prior levels. But Job Corps has bipartisan support: 18 Republicans signed a June letter to Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer urging continued funding for the program.
Begun in 1964, Job Corps offers low-income young people aged 16-24 free housing and courses to earn their high school diploma or GED while getting training in careers like deckhand, medical assistant, plasterer, or carpenter. Unions oversee pre-apprenticeship programs at some of the centers, giving graduates a path to good-paying careers. Tongue Point has glazing and painting programs operated by the Painters union, as well as a marine program overseen by the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific.
As of early January, Tongue Point had 195 students and another 53 students arriving in the next several weeks, McGoldrick said. Enrollment had been around 330 before the DOL closure order in May. More than 140 students went home without completing the program when it appeared the center would close, but McGoldrick said almost half of those students have since returned.
Springdale, meanwhile, had 45 students as of December, far below its capacity of 139, director Sabrina Smith said. Smith directed other questions to the DOL, which ignored requests for enrollment information.
A silver lining of the near-shutdown was the outpouring of support from the Astoria community, McGoldrick said. Clatsop Community Action worked with students and staff to find housing options so they didn’t end up homeless if they were forced out of Job Corps housing. Last June, residents packed a town meeting organized by Astoria City Council to discuss the program’s future. And Rep. Suzanne Bonamici met with students off-campus after the DOL denied her request to visit Tongue Point.
“I felt like this community really rallied around us,” said Goldrick, who started working for Tongue Point in 2023 and became center director the month before the DOL shutdown attempt.
The Springdale campus and the Pivot satellite campus (located in the Montgomery Park building in NW Portland is not operated by Human Learning Systems. That contractor lost the bid nearly 2 years ago. The current contractor is Career Systems Development Corporation. Pivot is located in a professional office setting offering vocational training as a Medical Administrative Assistant, as well as academic assistance obtaining a GED or diploma. They also teach young people to drive. All free.