News that the federal government is preparing to close the Cassadaga Job Corps Academy is a shock to many, including students and faculty.

The Job Corps is a federal job training and education program designed to serve low-income youth between the ages of 16 and 24 who face barriers to education and employment, founded by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

The Cassadaga Job Corps opened in August, 1978. It offers training in carpentry, electrical, painting, plumbing, certified nursing assistant, advanced training licensed practical nurse and security officer/guard certification.

One can debate whether or not the federal government is fairly judging the completion percentage for Job Corps programs offered in Cassadaga – but the program’s deficit for contractor provided Job Corps centers cannot. In 2024, the program operated at a $140 million deficit, requiring the Biden administration to implement a pause in center operations to complete the program year. The deficit is projected to reach $213 million in 2025.

The mission of providing job training to students who need it is laudable. The real question is can such job training be provided either here or elsewhere. Job training programs exist in many communities through BOCES or local community colleges – so it could be reasonably expected that there should be an opportunity here to boost the use of programs that already exist outside of the federally provided Job Corps program.

The real question is where that training should be provided and who pays. Many Job Corps students aren’t local students – but it’s not as if Jamestown Community College isn’t trying to recruit students from around the world to beef up its enrollment numbers. Could a federal contract for community college campuses in cooperation with local BOCES programs accomplish the same or similar job training opportunities for underprivileged students? In our view it’s entirely possible.

There is no debating the fact that there are good jobs available that don’t require a college degree. And there should be no debate that the youth the Job Corps has served over the years – and the population at large – benefit from such job training. But we can find those same benefits in a different way if we break down the silos that we’ve built over the years. There are millions of dollars being spent on job training by state and federal taxpayers, and those dollars often compete with each other to be used. There is an opportunity here to spend fewer dollars yet still provide needed career and technical education opportunities to the youth who have been served by the Job Corps.

We can fight over this announcement because of who made it, or state and local education officials can come together to figure out how to educate students served by the Job Corps within the pretty expensive education infrastructure we have already built.