Published: July 19, 2008 03:45 am         

Job Corps needs stability to succeed

The new director of the Oneonta Job Corps Academy is working hard to get off on the right foot with the community.

At a recent community luncheon, he announced a variety of initiatives aimed not only at polishing up Job Corps’ tarnished image, but also at making it clear to students that they do not live in a protected bubble. Their actions, even confined to campus, have ramifications in the community at large.

It would be naive to think that Job Corps could be transformed overnight, and Director John Henry Young spoke of no such illusions.

He did, however, make strong statements about the direction he wants the OJCA to take, hoping to build on a tradition that’s already been established of Job Corps students lending their labor and expertise to important community-service projects.

For an institution that has had a reputation of closing ranks around students and staff when things have gone wrong, it’s refreshing to hear Job Corps leadership talking about openness and improved communication and taking such tangible steps toward achieving these goals.

While the Oneonta Job Corps Academy has had its unique set of challenges and problems over the years, its real problem may lie beyond the new director’s scope of authority.

Although it is technically operated by the federal government through the U.S. Department of Labor, the hands-on management of OJCA is administered by a revolving door of private companies, where the lowest bidder wins the job.

What was arguably one of Oneonta Job Corps’ brightest periods, 1988-1998, saw the academy garnering national praise under the management of ITT and expanding its offerings. This was followed by a slow decline in national ranking that saw three companies managing the academy over a 10-year period.

It’s hard to look at this recent history and not conclude that consistency in management is beneficial to the operation of the academy.

As such, while it’s heartening to hear John Henry Young’s ideas about how the OJCA can grow and improve, we have to wonder if he will be given time to realize these dreams.

If the federal government continues handing over the care and education of economically disadvantaged young people to whatever company can do it for the least amount of money, the Oneonta academy and scores of others across the nation may continue to suffer unpredictable highs and lows.

We hope Young’s vision for a more-successful, more-open environment at the OJCA can come to fruition, but we fear he won’t be given that chance.

The federal government must realize that this important program can never truly thrive if it isn’t given a chance at stability.