Gang and drug activity among complaints aimed at Job Corps

The Gary Job Corps Center, a sprawling former Army base in San Marcos and the first of Texas State University graduate Lyndon Johnson's Job Corps facilities, has been providing work force training for youth since the program's inception in 1964. More than 2 million at-risk youths have graduated from the Job Corps program nationwide and nearly 2,000 are presently enrolled at Gary. However, current ACC students at the Gary facility have directed criticism at the program, adding to years of concerns about Job Corps.

Students cited gang and drug activity, vandalism and maintenance issues as problems that have plagued them and colored their experiences at the program.

Under the program, students live onsite at the San Marcos facility, and those listed as "distinguished" have the opportunity to attend classes at an outside college. For those attending classes at ACC, Gary Job Corps provides bussing to and from the facility. Most of the students come from disadvantaged backgrounds and many never received high school diplomas.

When asked whether the program has helped students enter the workforce, one student said about the Gary facility in San Marcos, "Only through the ability to go to college. It actually looks bad on a resume to be from Job Corps... their students are famous for being delinquents... and that gives employers a bad idea."

The student, who has been with the program for a year and a half, said, "I was robbed when I first got there… The way some of the students behave when I am on the bus is one example; they're throwing people around... there's a lot of students that are just trying to sit there or do something as simple as stand in line for the bus or the cafeteria; they're minding their own business and they'll get trampled... I know when I go around the center I can tell that a lot of the teachers and staff feel intimidated by the students."

In response, many staff members "push the students with empty threats," she said. "They never follow through with it and after the first couple empty threats they know nothing is going to happen to them and it just gets worse."

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, said that he joined a gang at Gary during his first year. He said, "I feel fairly safe but that's because I surround myself with people who would have my back if anything were to go down."

Gary Job Corps purports to have a zero tolerance policy regarding drugs and violence. Administrators did not respond to questions about buying, selling or the consumption of drugs by students, nor did they respond to requests for information about violent activity at Gary.

Regarding the availability of drugs on campus, the student who admits to being in a gang said that the majority of students participate in using drugs and that faculty do little to stop them.

"Honestly there's no way anybody doesn't know about that. A lot of [the staff] just look the other way," he said.

Sources allege that Gary faculty misrepresented questions related to the availability of drugs as part of a survey. The survery was designed to track attitudes toward campus life.

A student reported the faculty member explained, "What they mean is, can you legally obtain drugs and alcohol?" The student remarked, "everyone knows that drugs are not legal in the first place. What would they mean by that?"

Administrators refused the Accent's request to view the Student Satisfaction Survey, provided by the Department of Labor.

Gary's managing partner, the Management and Training Corporation, is no stranger to misrepresentation. MTC, a private company contracted by the Department of Labor to manage the facility, administers numerous Job Corps programs in addition to 12 privatized correctional facilities concentrated throughout the southwest United States.

According to a 2003 online report by the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Labor, the Kittrell Job Corps Center in Kittrell, N. C., was accused of manipulating student records in order to artificially improve reported performance. The altered records resulted in the center's managing firm, the Management and Training Corporation, receiving a potential overpayment of $664,000. In response, the Labor Department's Employment and Training Administration cited "poor management, imprecise record keeping, and human error as likely factors" contributing to the overpayment. Despite criticism, Gary administrators are confident that the facilities are helping move disadvantaged youth into the job market.

"Job Corps has been a wonderful private/public partnership," said Curtis Price, Center Director for Gary Job Corps.

"Job Corps takes at-risk youth and trains them to have long term attachment to the work force," said Price. "Our students do internships or work-based learning, which is an excellent way of evaluating how they are prepared once they get out there. We get feedback to see how they are performing on the job and then we can adjust our training accordingly. We have a business and industry council made up of professionals in each field we train in that evaluates our teaching methods, our equipment, and evaluates whether that trade is viable for the future, to make sure that we are moving along with the proper training."

In 2005, Gary won four awards at a regional conference held in Dallas, including a first place award in vocational production.

Abe Parker III, a Job Corps student studying human services at ACC, admires Gary Job Corps. "The training I received in Job Corps is helping me a whole lot in ACC," Parker said.

Gary spokesman, Randolph Goodman, explained the ease in which students can attend programs. "Students that we have here on the center are really employees, because all students are paid while they're here. It's unlike any other training facility. You know, people have to pay to attend ACC, we pay students to come here. The primary issue is the vocational training, the social training and the academic training."