ITT Tech Shutters All Its Locations, Including Nashville

NASHVILLE, TN — After nearly a half-century of operation, for-profit education giant ITT Technical Institute announced it is closing all of its locations nationwide, including the Nashville campus on Elm Hill Pike, immediately.

In a statement, the Carmel, Ind.-based company said the "overwhelming majority" of its 8,000 employees have been laid off as part of the shutdown.

"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 statement read, in part.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Education prohibited ITT Tech from taking any federal aid and required it raise its cash reserves from $94.4 million to $247.3 million. The sanctions, a response to reports that ITT Tech students were not adequately trained, were saddled with a disproportionate amount of student-loan debt and that ITT Tech used predatory practices on potential students, led ITT Tech to stop enrolling students.

It was effectively a death sentence for the schools.

Image via Wikimedia user Dwight Burdette, used under Creative Commons.