Brightwood College Closes!

The for-profit college Education Corporation of America is out of business.

The for-profit Brightwood College closes up after the U.S. Department of Education ceased the financing and terminated their accreditation.

Education Corporation of America announced that it will close all of its campuses nationwide, including the Brightwood campus in Dayton, Ohio.

The company operated under a varity of names, issues and "career-focused" diploma and associate's degree programs.

The school announced its closure after the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools suspended ECA's accreditation on December 4th.

The company was $50 million in debt and was hoping to not lose its leasing. The students who attended may lose all their funding and may never get their degrees. Some may be able to obtain their diplomas but it won't net them jobs.

Stu Reed, the CEO of the ECA wrote on social media and public statement.

Dear Students,

In early fall, we undertook a path to dramatically restructure Education Corporation of America* (parent company of the campus in which you applied) to best posture it for the future.  This plan entailed the commitment of additional funds from investors.

However, recently, the Department of Education added requirements that made operating our schools more challenging. In addition, last night ACICS suspended our schools' accreditation with intent to withdraw. The uncertainty of these requirements resulted in an inability to acquire additional capital to operate our schools.

It is with extreme regret that this series of recent circumstances has forced us to discontinue the operations of our schools. Unfortunately, this means that your enrollment will be cancelled and there will not be future classes at the campus in which you enrolled or any Education Corporation of America campuses.

We encourage you to pursue your career training with another school in your area that offers the same or similar program.

This is clearly not the outcome we envisioned for you or our schools, and it with the utmost regret that I inform you of this direction.

Stu Reed,

President & CEO

This is a blow to the people who attended the ECA colleges.

If a school closes, students with loans can ask the U.S. Department of Education to cancel those loans, according to Project on Predatory Student Lending Director Toby Merrill.

Good luck on that.

Betsy DeVos isn't going to be nice to those who ain't nice to her. Speak of that, did the Republicans pass legislation that rollback the Dodd-Frank Banking Regulations Act?

The Republicans have tried to advance bills that cut "loan forgiveness" for public servants, simplify the system borrowers using to repay their loans as a percentage of their income, and eliminate subsidized loans or loans where interest doesn't accrue while a student is in school.

The Republican Party's goal is to punish graduates with mountainous debt.

Again, Dayton, Ohio is the rust belt city that Donald J. Trump won in 2016.

So far this community has lost, Sears, Kmart, TeraData, Good Samaritan Hospital, Bon Ton (Elder-Beerman), Hamvention, Hara Arena, Max & Erma's, Abuelo's Mexican, Dayton Expo Center, De'lish, Roger's Jewelry and not to mention the possible Dayton City Schools closing and Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority service closing.

Dayton once again becomes a part of the forgotten. The sixth largest city in the state of Ohio continues to be in free fall while Columbus grows, Cincinnati grows and the remaining portions become a symptom of unfortunate circumstances.

The remaining campuses are in California, Nevada, Texas, Indiana, Tennessee, Maryland and North Carolina.