ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – A CBS News investigation has uncovered big trouble nationwide with the federally-funded U.S. Job Corps program including the program’s outlet in Albuquerque. The investigation alleges that the schools are lying about their success rates and sweeping dangerous problems under the rug, all for money. As part of the report, at least two former Albuquerque Job Corps employees have made some alarming claims about the program here.
Job Corps in Albuquerque is one of New Mexico’s biggest resources for disadvantaged teens looking for education, job training and job placement.
Video posted on YouTube shows several students in Albuquerque claiming that they got involved in the program because they “needed a better job,” “had no skills” or “no place to go,” and “wanted a better life.”
However, the Albuquerque program is now in the middle of national scrutiny along with many other sites across the U.S.
Former employees told KRQE News 13 and CBS News that the Albuquerque site was home to unreported teen drug and alcohol use and fraudulent graduation certificates for students earning GED’s and different trade certifications, including welding.
“You know in theory the students going to go out into the work force, supposedly being a skilled welder and they have no idea what they’re doing, they never even set foot in the shop,” said Samantha Scott, a former Job Corps employee in Albuquerque.
Scott is a former career counselor at the Albuquerque Job Corps site in the North Valley near 12th and Indian School, which has more than 300 students on campus each day.
She claims she left the program on her own accord in 2013 after writing a three and half page letter to the Department of Labor’s Inspector General regarding multiple allegations of fraudulent activity.
In the letter, Scott wrote of one situation where a female student was allowed to take an individual GED with her boyfriend present in the same room. In another allegation, Scott claims a student was given a welding certification even after missing a majority of the classes. Scott also News 13 that most of the Albuquerque Job Corps employees are told to call at least two managers before calling 911 in emergencies.
At one point in the CBS News report, three former Job Corps employees, including Scott, raised their hands when asked if they “were told not to call the police.”
This year alone, Albuquerque Police have responded to the Job Corps campus 28 times including at least four calls for drug overdoses. The Albuquerque Fire Department has also responded to the campus 21 times so far this year, mostly for emergency medical services.
Other former employees claim Job Corps sites overstate how many people got jobs after graduating, which has drawn criticism from former Department of Labor officials.
“If there is fraud in reporting of the numbers, then that framework puts the whole program in to question,” said Mason Bishop, a former deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Labor.
KRQE News 13 tried to ask Albuquerque’s site director about the claims on Wednesday, however employees at the site said the director was “not available” and that all questions could be answered by a public relations representative in Houston, Texas.
The Flour Corporation runs the Albuquerque Job Corps site. News 13 called a spokesperson for the corporation on Wednesday, but no one called back.
A recent Federal audit found that companies that run Job Corps around the country are exaggerating the graduation and job placement rates more than 40% of the time. Former employees think the companies are lying to keep the federal money pouring in and to qualify for bonuses.
