ITT Education Services announced Monday, Sept. 6, plans to close all of its 130 Technical Institutes in the country.
The announcement comes about two weeks after the U.S. Department of Education said it would ban the company from enrolling students who use federal aid and would impose more stringent financial oversight.
ITT blamed the company’s closure on the Education Department’s most recent sanctions in a news release Tuesday. The company, which operates Southern California campuses in Oxnard, Corona, San Bernardino, Sylmar, Torrance, Orange and San Dimas, will not offer a September quarter, according to the statement.
The company laid off more than 8,000 employees. The remaining staff will focus on helping current students find alternatives.
The scene was quiet at ITT Technical Institute’s Corona campus Tuesday morning the day the for-profit school announced plans to close its campuses.
The doors to the visitor entrance were locked at the school, located? in a six-story office building.
Deon Sims, a 36-year-old Perris resident, arrived to try to find out if the credits he earned will be valid at another school. He said he is? halfway toward an associate’s degree in network systems administration.
He said he knew the school was having accreditation issues, but had no idea the problems were so bad.
He found out the college was shutting its campuses on the TV news Tuesday morning.
I feel sorry for people like me who are scrambling, who have to find a new place to get an education. I feel? sorry for those who are out of a job.”
Sims, who is unemployed, said he isn’t angry but hopes there is better oversight of for-profit schools to ensure they remain financially strong. He said he’s confident he can repay his government loans that? helped pay for his studies.
“It’s pretty heartbreaking,” he said. “The best I can do is land on my feet and move forward somewhere else.”
The Education Deparment’s sanctions came after the school’s accreditor, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, determined that ITT had not met and was unlikely to meet its criteria for accreditation, the department said in a news release.
The department began monitoring ITT’s finances more closely in 2014 and again in 2016 after “concerns about ITT’s administrative capacity, organizational integrity, financial viability and ability to serve students,” the department said in a news release.
The company called the department’s actions unwarranted and unconstitutional in its Sept. 6 release, adding that ITT was not given a hearing or an appeal.
“We have always carefully managed expenses to align with our enrollments