By Natalia V. Navarro
An aerial picture of the Collbran Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center in Collbran, Colorado, as it appears on its website. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced May 24, 2019, that the center would be handed over to a private contractor.
A Western Slope job center (click here) that has been helping educate and employ rural youth for over 50 years through a federal job corps program will soon be taken over by a private contractor.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced May 24 it is ending its long-standing Forest Service job training program. Nine of the 25 centers nationwide that serve rural youth are closing.
The only such center in Colorado, the Collbran Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center, will likely be privatized, but employees don’t know when and how that will happen, according to the center Director Evonne Stites. The 46 employees there will lose their jobs at an undetermined point in the future. Stites, who’s been with the center for two decades, said she was told by federal officials that she and the rest of the staff would have the option to retire or to re-apply and interview for their positions with the unnamed contractor....
So let me get this right. The Job Corp Civilian Conservation Centers will be closed down, except for one in Colorado. It will cause job loss, but, it will also cease to educate people that go on to perform jobs.
Really??
These people educate people for real jobs. It does not make sense to me, especially because the government still pays for the training in Colorado, but, through a private contractor. It sounds like plenty of room for corruption.
