Our long mid-county nightmare has come to an end. Federal funding has been secured to keep Job Corps centers across the country open, including the Cassadaga Job Corps Academy.

Let it be a reminder to anyone who is concerned about federal spending that the idea of cutting the federal budget is something everyone can get behind until someone tries to cut their particular slice of the federal budget. Nobody likes pork until someone tries to take their Christmas ham.

We don’t think saving the Job Corps should be the end of this particular story. We’re merely starting a new chapter of the story.

It should be troubling to everyone that, according to federal statistics, the Cassadaga Job Corps center has a graduation rate of 39.53%, according to a Department of Labor official. The cost per graduate in Cassadaga is $123,654.22. The entire program, again according to federal statistics, operated at a $140 million deficit in 2024. The deficit is projected to reach $213 million in 2025. Local Job Corps advocates say the local graduation rate is so low and the cost per graduate so high because students who receive a GED don’t count toward the program’s success measurements until they receive a career training certificate. But if the purpose of the Job Corps is job training, shouldn’t a career training certificate be the measure by which the academy is judged?

We have been critical in the past of the amount of money spent on public school education in New York state. That number, for those who care, has now reached $36,293 per pupil through the 2024-25 school year. How can one not be critical of spending $123,654.22 per Job Corps graduate?

We have no doubt that the Job Corps is a lifeline for youth who desperately need one. But that lifeline shouldn’t be paid for with a blank check. Now that it has been saved, the Cassadaga Job Corps has to improve by the federal government’s measurements. It must graduate more students. And it must graduate those students at a cost that makes sense. Otherwise it will always be on the chopping block. And eventually, the money will run out.