When education officials announced the sanctions against ITT last month, they said it wasn’t meant to force the chain to close.
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Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education say they are now working to figure out options for ITT Tech students and say they’ll be releasing more information soon. The company has also cancelled its upcoming September quarter of classes.
ITT Tech had four campuses in North Carolina, the Durham campus at 4025 Stirrup Creek Drive, two in Charlotte and one in High Point.
Students who were enrolled at ITT within the last 120 days can apply to have their federal student loans erased by the Education Department.
“In the past, department officials were literally on Corinthian campuses telling students to enroll in places like ITT Tech”, he said. The company did not identify how many of those were in Georgia.
In late August, the U.S. Department of Education barred ITT from enrolling new students who depend on federal aid and required the company to warn current students that its accreditation was in jeopardy. “And normally, if I was a for-profit college, I would find this money by enrolling and recruiting new students”.
A statement from the company Tuesday blamed the federal sanctions for the schools’ closures, and called the actions “inappropriate and unconstitutional”.
Read the full statement here. “… with (ITT Tech) ceasing operations, it will now likely rest on other parties to understand these reprehensible actions and to take action to attempt to prevent this from happening again”. It operated more than 130 campuses in 38 states.
ITT has come under increasing governmental scrutiny and accusations of fraud. The Education Department also told ITT to drastically increase its cash reserves, and the combination seemed to make continuing operations untenable.
The email also explained that some students could be eligible to have their student loans forgiven.
If students paid for their ITT courses with their own funds, they can go through the Arizona State Board for Private Postsecondary Education website and file for a Student Tuition Recovery Fund claim, she added. The amount of student loans that could be discharged totals about $500 million. The closure is among the largest in history and it will affect around 40,000 students. Jessica Whitney, the director of the office’s Consumer Protection Bureau, said the investigation was prompted by concerns over whether ITT was using unfair and deceptive practices in trying to recruit students.
After ITT Tech closed all of its schools, students in St. Louis are wondering what will happen to their credit hours and their student loan debt.
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The N.C. Attorney General’s office has been investigating ITT along with a group of other state attorney generals and also has been in touch with the U.S. Department of Education about ITT closing, according to Noelle Talley, public information officer at the N.C. Department of Justice.
