ITT Education Services announced Monday that it plans to close all of its 130 Technical Institutes in the country.
Advertisement
A voice mail recording at the ITT campus at Lake Mary said the administrative offices were closed and the messages were full.
On Tuesday, ITT Educational Services, the company that operates ITT Technical Institutes, said it was permanently closing all if its campuses nationwide.
The finical blow was too much for ITT to bear, so the decision was made to shutter operations, a move that will impact thousands of students and employees. “In response, over the last couple of years, we at the Department of Education have increased our financial oversight over ITT and required the school to boost its cash reserves to cover potential damages to taxpayers and students”.
The for-profit college was recently banned from enrolling any students who require financial aid.
In a news release Tuesday, ITT blamed the company’s closure on the Education Department’s most recent sanctions.
Its career-based programs had attracted 40,000 students at 137 campuses in 39 states as of mid-year, the company had said in federal securities filings. According to the Wall Street Journal, that type of aid provided 68 percent of ITT Educational Services Inc.’s $850 million in revenue in 2015.
ITT students received almost $5 billion in federal aid since 2010, according to the Education Department.
A Bloomberg report last month noted that the U.S. Department of Education had decided new ITT students wouldn’t be able to use federal student loans and grants because the company’s future was “too risky”.
“So now, I have to start all over again”, said one student, who we will refer to as Cory. The comapny said its remaining staff will help thousands of students manage their records and explore transfer options.
Advertisement
Of course, federal investigations leading to the Education Department’s game-changing decision on ITT weren’t unjustified.
