Classes have started for everybody except ITT Tech’s 35,000 students, who were told yesterday that the educational service company would be shutting down all of its 130 campuses, including two in MA.
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Of course, federal investigations leading to the Education Department’s game-changing decision on ITT weren’t unjustified.
The Department of Education will allow students to walk away from their outstanding federal loans or transfer their credits to a similar institution. That is why my office wants to ensure all students affected by ITT’s closure clearly understand their options moving forward. The doors to the campus remained locked Tuesday at the Durham ITT Technical Institute near Research Triangle Park.
The more immediate concern for many are the students who are left without a degree and, in many cases, saddled with debt from the loans they took out to pay for school. The department cut off ITT from the federal financial aid program, automatically deeming new students unfit for federal student loans or Pell grants-which is crucial for the operation of for-profit institutions.
“Effective today, the company has eliminated the positions of the overwhelming majority of our more than 8,000 employees”, the Indiana-based for-profit college said in a September 6 statement. In 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued the college’s parent company, accusing it of predatory student lending.
Its 29,990-square-foot building was built in 2008 and is located on ITT Tech Way about 1.5 miles from Interstate 75.
As this for-profit tech school abruptly closed its 130 campuses nationwide, It impacts 40,000 students and 8,000 employees.
The Education Department has a website, studentaid.gov/ITT, with more information and plans to host webinars on Wednesday.
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Cory is one of thousands of students who say they received an email notifying them of the shocking news at 7 a.m. Tuesday, though they say some faculty got a different message last Friday.
