Cost of ITT Tech implosion surpasses $141 million for taxpayers

U.S. taxpayers have already shelled out more than $141 million to help students affected by the collapse of ITT Technical Institute and they may be on the hook for hundreds of millions more.

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The United States Department of Education has paid more than $141 million to alleviate debt from students who were affected by the closure of ITT last fall, according to court documents filed last week by the department. Discharges of debt for students who attended the now defunct for-profit college are estimated to eventually cost more than $460 million, according to court documents.

The payments are part of a federal school-closure loan discharge program. The education department claims in court documents that ITT is liable for the cost to discharge loans.

ITT had 130 locations across the country and nine in Ohio including some in Dayton, Columbus and Cincinnati. There were about 2,000 students who attended the Ohio locations, state officials have said.

ITT’s closure followed the shuttering of several other area for profit schools.

After 100 years in Dayton, Miami-Jacobs announced last July it would no longer accept new students at its Dayton, Springboro, Troy and Sharonville campuses. The art Institute of Ohio in Cincinnati and Brown Mackie College in Cincinnati and Findlay also stopped accepting new students.

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