The U.S. Department of Education in August delivered a death blow for ITT Technical Institute by banning the for-profit college from accepting new students who depend on Federal student aid, which was the source of most of ITT’s revenue.
On Tuesday, ITT Educational Services, the company that operates ITT Technical Institutes, said it was permanently closing all if its campuses nationwide.
The decision to close the schools will affect roughly 35,000 students and 8,000 employees.
According to the Department of Education, current students and those who recently graduated are eligible to have their ITT Tech student loans forgiven.
“We reached this decision only after having exhausted the exploration of alternatives, including transfer of the schools to a non-profit or public institution,” ITT said in a statement. “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.”
On Tuesday, the Department of Education sent an email to enrolled students to notify them of the closure and explain their options, said Ted Mitchell, the undersecretary of education.
The department has a team of employees ready to answer telephone questions at 800-4FEDAID, has a special website for ITT students, and is planning a series of webinars to help them figure out their options, Mitchell said.
