ITT Technical Institute shut down on Tuesday, closing its 130 campuses nationwide.
>> MORE: ITT Technical Institute closes all schools
The closure affected about 40,000 students in 38 states. It follows other failures in the for-profit college industry as the federal government has cut off the flow of student aid funds.
U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. said current or recently enrolled ITT students may be eligible to have their federal student loans discharged and restart their education somewhere new. The amount of student loans that could be discharged totals about $500 million.
Read King's statement here.
>>MORE: Answers to 7 questions ITT students may be having
Whitney Barkley, an attorney with the Center for Responsible Lending said, "Although ITT Tech blamed its closures on August 25 Department of Education supervisory actions, the institution was facing multiple state investigations as well as other serious signs of approaching failure.
National Consumer Law Center attorney Abby Shafroth said, “In light of ITT’s closure announcement, we reiterate our call that the Department act to protect currently enrolled and former ITT students, including by discharging the federal student loans of students who were unable to complete their program at ITT due to the closure–without requiring individual applications for discharge–and by fully investigating ITT’s recruitment and enrollment practices to help ensure that former ITT students harmed by misconduct get relief from their federal loans through the borrower defense process or other remedies available.”
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