Nevada gets $3M in settlement for ITT students
CARSON CITY — More than $3 million in debt relief is coming for hundreds of former ITT Tech students in Nevada as part of a multi-state settlement, Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office announced Friday.
Nevada and 43 other states and territories came to the settlement with Student CU Connect CUSO, which offered loans for students’ tuition for ITT Tech. In total, 335 former ITT Tech students from Nevada will receive roughly $3.4 million in collective debt relief as part of the settlement.
“Education should be the pathway to success, not a scam,” Ford said in a statement. “These students thought they were furthering their career, only to be subjected to abusive lending practices to pay for an education at a failed institution. I’m proud that my office obtained much-needed financial relief for hundreds of Nevadans through this settlement.”
The attorneys general alleged that ITT Tech offered students temporary credit once they were enrolled to cover cover gaps between federal student loans and the total cost of tuition. That credit was supposed to be repaid before the start of the next school year, but the attorneys general argued that ITT Tech and CUSO knew or should have known that repaying that credit would not be possible for most students.
CUSO agreed to forgo collection of the outstanding debt, according to Ford’s office.
ITT Tech filed for bankruptcy in 2016 after the U.S. Department of Education banned the school from enrolling students who receive federal aid.
Contact Capital Bureau Chief Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.
