(Radio Iowa) – A federal judge in New York is scheduled to hear more arguments Wednesday in the Trump administration’s effort to close all 120 Job Corps centers nationwide, including those in Denison and Ottumwa. There are 240 young people at the Ottumwa center, while the Denison center serves 450 youth each year. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, says he doesn’t want to see the centers shuttered, but also understands the motives behind the cost saving move to shut them down.

“The program going away is not right, but I do think that looking at the cost of educating these kids for the job world is turning out on a per student cost very, very high,” Grassley says, “and I think that needs to be monitored and some reforms brought to the program.” A report from the U.S. Department of Labor concluded the centers cost too much to operate and have a national graduation rate of 38-percent. Backers in Iowa have said that’s not the case in Denison, for example, where the graduation rate is over 94-percent. Grassley says the programs have a long history of providing a valuable service.

“I’ve happened to have visited both Iowa Job Corps centers,” he says. “I visited Denison many, many times because you know, it’s been around since probably Day One of the Job Corps Center. Then, too, I have visited the Ottumwa one at least once.” The judge in the case issued an injunction in late June to block the federal government’s order to close all centers nationwide. Job Corps has offered free education, vocational training and housing to young adults since 1964.