ITT Technical Institute Closes Up Shop!

The end of  ITT Tech. 

The college world is rocked by the federal government's sanctions of one of the oldest for-profit trade schools. The ITT Technical Institute is closing all its locations including the one in my community of Dayton, Ohio.

With approximately 130 campuses in 38 states of the United States, this bit of news hurts the people who enrolled for this session. In August, the company was barred from enrolling new students who use government loans and has chosen to cease enrolling any new students at all.

ITT Tech announced that it was immediately ceasing operations and closing all of its campuses.

In 2014, Time magazine ranked ITT Technical Institute No. 2 on its list of "The 5 Colleges That Leave the Most Students Crippled By Debt". Among ITT Tech graduates with loans due in 2011, 22% had defaulted by 2014. According to the Time magazine report, ITT Tech's default rate ranked second; the for-profit University of Phoenix had a lower default rate by percentage (19% at Phoenix versus ITT Tech's 22%), but the total number of students in default from Phoenix was much higher (45,123 Phoenix students versus 11,260 ITT Tech students).

According to the College Scorecard, as of March 2016, 39% of ITT Tech graduates are paying off their debt, compared to the national average of 66% among all schools nationwide.

This percentage represents the number of graduates who were able to repay at least $1 in student loan debt in the three years after their graduation.

The U.S. Department of Education banned ITT Tech from enrolling students who receive federal aid and at the same time doubled the surety funds that ITT Tech was required to have, and to produce those funds within 30 days. Stock markets reacted with a punishing 35% drop which triggered a halt in trading, raising concerns about whether ITT Educational would be able to survive this latest decision

Carousel Beauty College also shut its doors in the Dayton, Ohio area. The five locations are gone.

This came without any warning as well. Many students attending the Dayton-based hair school are without a place.

The for-profit schools are on the way out.