Consumer advocates are speaking out after I-T-T Technical Institute closed all 130 of its for-profit schools on Tuesday, including six Indiana locations, leaving thousands of students in limbo. The move came after the U-S Department of Education banned I-T-T from accepting new students with federal education loans. Whitney Barkley-Denny with the nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending says the closure is ultimately a good thing, because I-T-T’s priorities have been questioned for years.
Over the years, many students have made complaints that I-T-T exaggerates both their graduation rates and their ability to place graduates in the job market. I-T-T has called the government crackdown “unwarranted and unconstitutional.” The school has campuses in Ft. Wayne, Greenwood, Indianapolis, Merrillville, Newburgh-Evansville and South Bend.
Barkley-Denny thinks I-T-T has been less an educational institution and more of a call center that used a cynical method known as a “pain funnel” to sign people up.
Barkley-Denny notes that I-T-T charges 26-thousand dollars for a two-year associate’s degree. Students who are enrolled now, or who left without a degree in the past four months, may be eligible to have their federal loans forgiven, and should contact the U-S Education Department at 800-4FEDAID.