CARMEL, Ind.,
Sept. 6, 2016 /
PRNewswire/ -- Today, ITT Educational Services, Inc. released the following statement:
"It is with profound regret that we must report that ITT Educational
Services, Inc. will discontinue academic operations at all of its ITT
Technical Institutes permanently after approximately 50 years of
continuous service. With what we believe is a complete disregard by the
U.S. Department of Education for due process to the company, hundreds of
thousands of current students and alumni and more than 8,000 employees
will be negatively affected.
The actions of and sanctions from the U.S. Department of Education
have forced us to cease operations of the ITT Technical Institutes, and
we will not be offering our September quarter. We reached this decision
only after having exhausted the exploration of alternatives, including
transfer of the schools to a non-profit or public institution.
Effective today, the company has eliminated the positions of the
overwhelming majority of our more than 8,000 employees. Our focus and
priority with our remaining staff is on helping the tens of thousands of
unexpectedly displaced students with their records and future
educational options.
This action of our federal regulator to increase our surety
requirement to 40 percent of our Title IV federal funding and place our
schools under "Heightened Cash Monitoring Level 2," forced us to
conclude that we can no longer continue to operate our
ITT Tech campuses and provide our students with the quality education they expect and deserve.
For more than half a century,
ITT Tech
has helped hundreds of thousands of non-traditional and underserved
students improve their lives through career-focused technical education.
Thousands of employers have relied on our institutions for skilled
workers in high-demand fields. We have been a mainstay in more than 130
communities that we served nationwide, as well as an engine of economic
activity and a positive innovator in the higher-education sector.
This federal action will also disrupt the lives of thousands of hardworking
ITT Tech employees and their families. More than 8,000
ITT Tech employees are now without a job – employees who exhibited the utmost dedication in serving our students.
We have always carefully managed expenses to align with our
enrollments. We had no intention prior to the receipt of the most recent
sanctions of closing down despite the challenging regulatory
environment that now threatens all proprietary higher education. We have
also always worked tirelessly to ensure compliance with all applicable
laws and regulations, and to uphold our ethic of continuous improvement.
When we have received inquiries from regulators, we have always been
responsive and cooperative. Despite our ongoing service to this nation's
employers, local communities and underserved students, these federal
actions will result in the closure of the ITT Technical Institutes
without any opportunity to pursue our right to due process.
These unwarranted actions, taken without proving a single allegation, are a "
lawless execution,"
as noted by a recent editorial in The Wall Street Journal. We were not
provided with a hearing or an appeal. Alternatives that we strongly
believe would have better served students, employees, and taxpayers were
rejected. The damage done to our students and employees, as well as to
our shareholders and the American taxpayers, is irrevocable.
We believe the government's action was inappropriate and
unconstitutional, however, with the ITT Technical Institutes ceasing
operations, it will now likely rest on other parties to understand these
reprehensible actions and to take action to attempt to prevent this
from happening again."
SOURCE ITT Educational Services, Inc.
For further information: Nicole Elam, ITT Educational Services, Inc., 13000 N. Meridian St., Carmel, Ind. 46032, 317-706-9200
