ITT Tech students to receive debt settlement funds

SBJ file photo

ITT Technical Institute previously operated a Springfield campus.

Former ITT Technical Institute students are set to receive funds as part of a multistate settlement reached with a lender.

Some 600 former ITT Tech students in Missouri are slated to receive more than $4.7 million in debt relief in a settlement that exceeds $168 million involving 18,000 U.S. students, according to a news release from Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office.

The entity that offered the loans, Student CU Connect CUSO LLC agreed to the settlement terms. The company’s loan program originated some $189 million in student loans to ITT Tech students between 2009 and 2011. Carmel, Indiana-based ITT Educational Services Inc. (NYSE: ESI) shuttered all of its campuses, including a Springfield location, in 2016.

Multiple state attorneys general alleged Student CU Connect CUSO misled students into obtaining the loans along with ITT Tech. The closed for-profit school system allegedly pressured students — sometimes taking them out of class and threatening to expel them — to take out the loans that had default rates projected to exceed 90%. ITT Tech allegedly required the loans to cover the gap between federal student aid and the full cost of tuition, according to the release.

“As attorney general, rooting out fraud and bringing people to justice for scamming Missourians are important duties of mine. Since I took office, we have worked tirelessly to protect Missouri citizens and ensure that money is put back in their pockets when it is unjustly stolen,” Schmitt said in the release.

The settlement requires Student CU Connect CUSO to stop collecting outstanding ITT student loan debt, update credit reporting agencies and then cease doing business, according to Schmitt’s office.