Zach Nunn: So Useless, He’s Selling the End to the Ottumwa Job Corps as a Win for IA-03

“Ottumwa Job Corps, which serves 33 counties, has been one of the highest-performing in the country, consistently in the top five in terms of job placement after leaving the program.”

This week, the Trump administration announced the closure of the Ottumwa Job Corps: a program that provides vocational training and apprenticeship programs. The Ottumwa Jobs Corps program helps strengthen Iowa’s workforce and economy, and is one of the “highest-performing in the country, consistently in the top five in terms of job placement” for young people in the program.

What is Zach Nunn doing to protect job opportunities for Iowans?

Twiddling his thumbs, apparently – and touting how he secured a two-week extension “transition plan” for the end of the program. It’s a laughable thing to be bragging about, given that “over 100 staff members will be unemployed” at the end of Nunn’s plan and “[Iowa] partners and employers…still very much want to hire people out of those programming opportunities” that will be eliminated.

DCCC Spokesperson Katie Smith:
“Zach Nunn is so useless that he’s trying to sell the end to the Ottumwa Job Corps program as a win. Iowans will lose access to job training and apprenticeship programs that have helped address worker shortages and grow Iowa’s economy – and spineless Zach Nunn owns this every step of the way.”

Ottumwa Courier: Ottumwa Job Corps to shut down

• The word “devastation” was thrown around quite a bit.
• When it comes to Ottumwa Job Corps, there were few other ways to describe the federal government’s decision to shutter the job training program nationwide, and the effect it will have on the Ottumwa community.
• By eliminating the program, the U.S. is cutting $1.5 billion, but it also appeared to be a blanket cut; Ottumwa Job Corps, which serves 33 counties, has been one of the highest-performing in the country, consistently in the top five in terms of job placement after leaving the program.
• “This center has always operated at a high level, and I think the difference for Ottumwa has always been the community and what it’s done to embrace Job Corps,” she said. “A lot of our students stay in Wapello County. They work here, build their lives here.”
• “Obviously, we’re all disappointed and devastated. This is a devastating change for the Ottumwa region and southeast Iowa in general,” Indian Hills president Matt Thompson said. “Job Corps has done so many great things to students and individuals in our communities.
• Over 100 staff members will be unemployed when Job Corps shuts its doors, in a community that already has a worker shortage. Job Corps opened in 2011 and the college’s involvement started with former IHCC president Jim Lindenmayer.
• “[Dr. Lindenmayer] fought so hard to have this program part of the north workforce campus. If you look at workforce initiatives as a state and through the United States, apprenticeships is a huge focus right now, and Ottumwa was on the ground piloting apprenticeships programs,” Cale said. “Anybody that works here would be excited and ready to move in any direction to help young people, and we have a lot of partners and employers that would still very much want to hire people out of those programming opportunities.”

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