ITT Tech Shuts its Doors for Good

What can be described as possibly both students’ and alumnus’ worst nightmare is happening right now to all associated with ITT Technical Institutes across the country. As of September 6, 2016, ITT Tech released a statement saying that after fifty years of service, they are discontinuing all academic services permanently.

    According to the press release on ITT Tech’s website, the actions of the U.S. Department of Education have forced the school’s closing, which was the last option after an exhaustive search for any alternatives, including transferring of schools to a non-profit or even a public institution. 

    “This action of our federal regulator to increase our surety requirement to 40 percent of our Title IV federal funding and place our schools under ‘Heightened Cash Monitoring Level 2,’ forced us to conclude that we can no longer operate our ITT Tech campuses and provide our students with the quality education they expect and deserve.” What this means is that because the school was forced to change their classification under Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, the quality of education being provided by ITT Tech campuses was going to diminish to the point that the school would have to close down. For more information about the HEA, visit http://www.tgslc.org/policy/hea.cfm.

    It is explicitly stated that hundreds of thousands of students and alumni, as well as over 8000 staff, are being directly and negatively affected. The rippling effects of such a closing can only be described as catastrophic. Not only will over 8000 dedicated employees working to ensure student success at ITT Tech be without a job, but thousands of students will be left with wasted time and money towards a degree they may not be able to finish, and many alumni are going to find that the value of their degree from ITT Tech has greatly decreased, if they retain any value at all.

    The statement made by ITT Tech was that these actions are a “lawless execution…without a hearing or an appeal.” This statement may be charged with some opinion, however, as stated by Blake Neff, a reporter for The Daily Caller, in a review of an editorial piece in the Wall Street Journal regarding the issue. Neff states, “Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, one of the Senate’s top critics of for-profit schools, celebrated ITT’s demise.” Neff continues by stating that this shutdown will likely cost taxpayers a great deal of money since those who were wronged will now be seeking loan forgiveness on account of fraud. The estimated number could be in the millions to billions of dollars in loans forgiven to the thousands of students who would be eligible to apply.

    To conclude its statement, ITT Tech stated somberly, “We believe the government’s action was inappropriate and unconstitutional, however, with the ITT Technical Institutes 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.” For further explanation to questions or concerns regarding the closing, contact Nicole Elam of ITT Educational Services Inc. at 317-706-9200.