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ITT Tech Is Officially Closing (gizmodo.com)

Reader Joe_Dragon shares a Gizmodo report: ITT Technical Institute is officially closing all of its campuses following federal sanctions imposed against the company. The for-profit college announced the changes in a 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."
ITT Tech announced it was closing all of its campuses just one week after it stopped enrolling students following a federal crackdown on for-profit colleges. ITT Tech and other higher education companies like it have been widely criticized for accepting billions of dollars in government grants and loans while failing to provide adequate job training for its students. Last year, ITT Tech received an estimated $580 million in federal money (aka taxpayer dollars), according to the Department of Education.

21 of 420 comments (clear)

  1. Just get out of education by hierofalcon · · Score: 1, Insightful

    How much money goes to the favored public and private institutions from the federal government? There are plenty of worthless degrees you can get at any institution. None of their promises of employment or employment at a particular wage are worth anything.

    Why is it all right to go after the technical schools and not go after everybody else?

    They should just stop the funding and let all the colleges adapt. The more they've subsidized students costs of attending, the higher the tuition has been priced. Just stop already.

  2. Went to ITT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Having gone to ITT Tech AND then having gone to get my BSEE from an accredited university I can say without doubt those schools are designed to let you pass with a minimum amount of effort. HOWEVER, you CAN get a tremendous amount of knowledge IF you step up to do the extra work, which is what I did. That being said if you are willing to step up and be that self motivated to do that much work then it's no harder to go to a normal uni and getting a real degree.. which I did 2 years after going to ITT tech.. it was an expensive waste of time and energy that would have been better put to something else.... like a real degree. I did find the first few years of EE classes pretty easy due to what I had previously learned... but the path I took mistakenly took is not one I would recommend for others.. It REALLY wasn't worth it in time or money.

    good riddance.

  3. Simple rule by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There should be a simple rule, NO federal loans going to FOR PROFIT institutions. It does not make sense to give out federal loans to institutions that exist mainly to make money out of their students.

  4. Between Trump U and this story by marmot7 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    People now have no excuse to choose to go into debt to attend one of these places. If there are still people open to a pitch like this, what else can be done? Sure, go after the colleges but they're like moles. It's buyer beware and take some responsibility. Frankly, I would choose a state university or community college or some other option that enables you to get a decent education without too much debt. It's not worth the crazy debt levels and everyone should now know that the for profit college space is more than a bit sketchy.

  5. False equivilency by sjbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So when are the FEDs going to shut down the big Universities? $180,000 of student loans and NO JOB prospects ... They aren't being honest either.

    You do realize that you don't have to go to an expensive private university, right? Anyway if I go get a Harvard degree it will cost me a lot of money but I will in all likelihood have gotten an actual education along the way. You can argue that it isn't a good deal financially but you do get something at the end of the day. If you can't turn a Harvard degree into some sort of job you're doing it wrong. Comparing Harvard to or even a state university to ITT Tech is ridiculous.

    Companies like ITT (I don't really think of them as schools) basically provide a near worthless degree which nobody respects and doesn't open doors. They do so knowing that a large percentage of their customers (students) will fail out. They exist to load credulous low income people with debt while failing to provide them a real education. They prey on people who probably really aren't the sort of people who are college material in the first place. College is great but it isn't the right path for everyone. Trade schools would serve many of them much better and there is a clear need for skilled trades.

    1. Re:False equivilency by zrobotics · · Score: 4, Insightful

      While you can't outsource blue collar work, look at the way many of the trades have changed in the last quarter century. While plumbing, electrical, and HVAC are still great money-makers, many other trades are nowhere near as good as they once were. Craftsmanship isn't valued, customers don't know or care how shoddily their mcmansions are built. Additionally, it's hard to find Americans (of any race) who are willing and able to do the work. Anyone with a work ethic and half a brain has been convinced they need college and an office job. Technology has also eliminated many blue collar jobs, mainly in manufacturing. This is happening worldwide; a machinist friend is one of only two machinists employed at his plant. 15 years ago this company employed 14 machinists and machine operators, and the business has grown since then. While the trades are safer than programming jobs, they aren't immune or safe by any measure.

  6. Re:State colleges give garbage degrees by ScentCone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm sorry but state colleges give garbage degrees. My brother just graduated from the University of Maine degree with a liberal arts degree and is sweeping floors at a gas station.

    No, your brother chose a garbage major, and chose to spend a lot of money on an education that doesn't align with a career doing anything but sweeping floors at that gas station. It's not the state college's responsibility to make your brother face reality and study something that's actually challenging. If he wants to take on debt so he can spend four years on poetry or Russian literature or on women's studies, that's his business, and HIS debt. Quit whining - yourself, and on his behalf. You're as bad as he is, if you're blaming anyone other than him for his absurd choices.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  7. helpful government by micahraleigh · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The federal government is helping people understand where the good schools are !
    Just like the IRS is helping people choose political parties.
    Just like the DHS is helping the outcome of the next election.
    Just like NASA is helping reach out to muslims.
    Just like the EPA has been helping write laws without Congress, and helping to "crucify" people who don't comply with them.
    Just like the state department is helping people who donated to the right campaigns. And Chris Stevens.
    You might think it would help to shut down the atrocities at PUBLIC schools (rapes, drugs, teachers who don't care, etc), but you would be wrong. Just helping with some naked assertions.
    So thank the federal government for all the new kinds of help they have extended to us over the last 8 years. I feel like we are just beginning to learn how much help they can provide!

  8. What liberal arts actually means by sjbe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But a degree in Liberal Arts won't get me me a high paying job

    Basically nobody has a degree in Liberal Arts. Liberal arts is a group of subjects which includes many of the the STEM fields. If you have a degree in Physics you have a liberal arts degree. Same with Mathematics, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Biology, plus of course Languages, Literature, Psychology, Philosophy, Social Sciences, Arts, and more.

    Some liberal arts degrees are more valuable to employers than others but saying that liberal arts as a whole = no jobs is to misunderstand the term.

    1. Re:What liberal arts actually means by rjh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Liberal arts is rooted in theoretical nonsense...

      I hold a B.A. in computer science from a fairly good private college. One of my best friends graduated with a triple-major B.A. in physics, mathematics, and computer science, from the same institution. Other close friends from undergrad received B.A. degrees in chemistry, biology, geology, environmental science, and botany.

      In fact, my undergrad alma mater doesn't offer the B.Sc. degree at all.

      In 20 years in the software industry, not once has anyone ever asked whether I hold a B.A. or a B.Sc. It's a total nonissue. Some institutions offer the B.A., some offer the B.Sc., some offer both but differentiate them on how many differential calculus classes you've taken.

  9. Dumb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "We live in a society that does not value education at all,"

    1) We have a society that effectively mandates education for a minimum of 12 years

    2) We spend more per pupil than any country in the world to educate people

    3) The subsidies to universities number in the hundreds billions of dollars

    4) We encourage everyone to go to college. Everyone.

    If you're whining that you don't get college for free, keep in mind that if you lived in a society that pays for "free" college, the admission standards for college would have to be raised so that only the 10% of the smartest people are allowed to go to college.

    You would likely be excluded from any sort of higher education based on your complete lack of ability to even articulate a problem properly.

  10. Trades by sjbe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Part of the problem is that there's a push to put as many high school students into college (even 2-year college) as possible, even those who would be better served going to vocational schools.

    I could not agree more. I have a staff full of people who are definitely not college material but would be (and are) served well by a vocational education. There is always a need for skilled trades, welders, machinists, etc. Trying to turn everyone into a computer programmers regardless of aptitude is just idiotic and counterproductive. Not to mention costly.

    Protip: You can't outsource blue collar work.

    Care to wager on that? Ask the folks who work the assembly lines in Detroit if blue collar work cannot be outsourced. There are plenty of blue collar jobs that are very vulnerable to outsourcing when you live in a place with high labor costs like the US.

  11. Re:Universities aren't completely honest either by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They need to be stopped.

    Nope, but requiring a degree or considering it on a job application needs to be stopped, I've worked in places where we won't even hire people who don't come from a short list of 8 colleges. There's a reason things like the bar association and the medical board exist: anyone's daddy can buy a degree, but not everyone can pass tests of competence.

    The only barrier to employment should be certifications of competence in a field, either ad hoc (interview) or standardized (ex. the bar). You can go to all the Ivy League schools you want and get a large alphabet of degrees, but if you can't get certified you can't get employed. Unfortunately because of the need to justify H-1B's and outsourcing, employers are reluctant to embrace this model. If you could show that a large body of qualified applications do exist and are unemployed, it casts a big shadow on your statements that there aren't enough bodies to fill reqs. Even in careers like IT where there are some certifications, it seems to be a moving target of expensive and narrowly defined skills that you have to continuously chase. It's possible that industry professionals and the government are going to need to team up and create laws.

  12. Re:Universities aren't completely honest either by ganjadude · · Score: 3, Insightful

    id argue no colleges should receive federal funding. If people want an education they should pay for it. the cost has gone up and up since when? oh yeah since the government guaranteed it would pay for it

    so the schools keep increasing because they know they are getting paid no matter what happens to the kid

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  13. Re:finally by tripleevenfall · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The private universities are amateurs. Look at the public ones. Palatial campuses, massively inflated salaries, infinite job security, price gouging, on and on

  14. Re:Universities aren't completely honest either by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Degrees are extremely over-rated, and we have too much emphasis on them in our society-- but they give you some kind of baseline. I will likely never hire a devry, ITT, or University of Phoenix graduate (and so help me, I hope I never again have the misfortune of hiring a Harvard or MIT grad).

    It used to be that a degree meant that you had a balanced education, and you had proved that you can learn new things. Now, it seems like universities are becoming more like trade schools (at least my alma mattar's engineering school). People might graduate with more engineering hours, but they are so specialized that they are often useless.

    Specific to IT though, I really wish more of the people we work with had better communication skills rather than trying to explain a plan with Visio.

    Too bad labor laws now make it too dificult to hire people for (> 1year) internships. Most kids today would be better off with a good internship than college.

  15. too dificult to hire people for ( 1year) internsh by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So you want free labor?

  16. Germany has a good apprenticeship system by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Germany has a good apprenticeship system that mixes real paid work with a trade school like classroom. That is what is needed in the USA and not years of pure class room at an high cost.

  17. Re: like mcse and ccna by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Yeah like a nice mcse in mouse click systems engineering. Haha that is a joke in certification and something to be ashamed of getting outside HR as managers filter those out.

    CCNA are even worse. Do they even know what a vlan is?

    Certs therefore are not the reason either

  18. Re:too dificult to hire people for ( 1year) intern by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No, but the pay cap is about $8-10/hour and it can't fund healthcare benefits. Paying $15/hour when investing so much in a person (18-20 year old child) just doesn't work. Honestly, I would prefer to pay $5/hour plus pay for some formal courses for them to take (of our choosing).

    There is a way to do it, but it takes a lot of paperwork and you need to prove they aren't doing billable work or something. It ends up being more community service than anything-- which I don't really object to, but there isn't much in the way of a business benefit.

  19. Re:finally by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Correct! Expenses for Academia at State Universities have been flat the past 15 years while administrative expenses (especially college athletics!!!!) have risen by over 300%. So all that high tuition does not go to the profs, but to the greatest money waster of all time: college sports and licked campus gardening. My advice: learn German and study in Germany. Top notch universities with 0€ tuition.