Job Corps, the War on Poverty-era federal program that teaches trades to young adults, is having a comeback.
Enrollment plummeted at Job Corps campuses nationwide last year after the Trump administration attempted to wipe them out. The president said cutting the program would save about $1.6 billion a year, all during a time when the country has a shortage of skilled trade workers.
But after courts stepped in, enrollment is back up, including at the Wind River Job Corps in Riverton, Wyoming.
There, during a recent open house, a tight-knit crew of eight students was learning how to cut and connect pipes in a workshop.
Gilbert Mascarenaz, the petroleum technician instructor, challenged them: "Is anyone going to explain what a 1502 union is?"
Students wearing green hard hats and safety goggles whispered potential answers to one another.
"Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?" Mascarenaz joked.
After a long pause, 22-year-old Ivory Harvey stepped up to the plate.
"Connects two sections of pipe. Has this little lip in there," he started explaining to an audience of prospective students, community members and elected officials.
Harvey, who's from Boston, said he used to work at a gas station and got interested in the oil and gas business, so he came here. It's the only petroleum careers Job Corps program in the country, something supporters say is needed to help meet rising electricity demands. Jobs in the industry pay about $140,000 a year, according to Job Corps' website.
"It was a good way for me to be able to build my future without really draining my bank or draining my family's bank accounts," Harvey said.
That's because Job Corps is completely free. Since Lyndon Johnson was president in the '60s, the Departments of Labor and Agriculture have given students ages 16 to 24 room and board nationwide, while they work to graduate high school and get the job training of their choice.
" It's a really good opportunity for any families with lower income or less fortunate people trying to still build their life up," Harvey said.
However, last spring, Trump labeled Job Corps a "failed experiment for America's youth," citing a $140 million budget deficit and low graduation rates. The Labor Department announced it was shutting 99 campuses down.
Enrollment fell from about 24,000 to about 11,600, according to the Labor Department.
Wyoming state lawmaker Pepper Ottman, a Republican, agreed with Trump saying some Job Corps locations should close, but not all, including the one in her district.
"Because over the last 25 years, what are we saying? Everybody needs to be white collar?" Ottman said, while touring around the Riverton campus for a September open house.
Ottman said the Wyoming program is critical right now. The U.S. has a shortage of more than a million skilled trade workers, according to labor analytics company Lightcast.
"Now, we're all saying, 'We have no tradesmen. We don't have any electricians. We don't have any welders,'" she said.
Last spring, students, trade groups and nonprofits sued. They said the Trump administration couldn't unilaterally shut Job Corps down.
Courts blocked the closures soon after, and, this August, the Trump administration agreed to back down. As of July, the Labor Department said enrollment had nearly rebounded to around 20,000 nationwide, close to previous levels.
"I would say this is an AI-proof industry, or as AI-proof as you can get," said Ed Brady, president and CEO of the Home Builders Institute, a nonprofit which trains builders nationwide, including at Job Corps campuses.
He's happy they haven't been cut, but thinks reforms are still needed.
"We've got a lot of people in the system saying, 'We've gotta do better. We've got to make this more effective,'" he said.
That includes, Brady said, updating old dorms and making sure Job Corps is teaching relevant trades so enrollment can keep growing.
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