Students express concern, outrage over ITT Tech closures

Thousands of IIT Tech students have been left stranded after the company announced it was shutting its doors - effective immediately.

Confused students came to the IT Tech offices in Concord demanding answers.

RELATED: ITT Tech schools to close due to federal sanctions

The school was already closed for the quarter break and now it will remain that way permanently.

Randy Heyliger was scheduled to get his degree in network security in three months.

"They just shut a school down and they stopped financing from coming in and they stopped me from graduating and getting my degree, therefore getting a better job," he said with frustration.

ITT Tech was being investigated at the state and federal level for its recruiting and accounting practices and for its high tuition.

RELATED: 7 On Your Side: What happens to ITT Technical Institute students after closures?

"Their apparent priorities were really more around recruiting and enrolling and not so much on student success," explained Suzanne Martindale with the Consumers Union.

Finally, the Department of Education told ITT could no longer enroll new students who are on federal financial aid.

On Tuesday, the department put out this statement that reads in part: "The school's decisions have put its students and millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded federal student aid at risk."

LINK: Message from the Secretary of Education to ITT Students

"Oh, of course, I was on financial aid and they told me, as opposed to paying the $46,000 tuition, I would only have to pay $22,000 but it's still a lot of money that I can't afford right now," said student Manuel Martinez.

Martinez had taken out a loan to cover that $22,000.

READ: ITT Tech's statement about closure following federal actions

The company that owns the 130 campuses blames the Department of Education for forcing it to shut down, saying there was "a complete disregard by the department of education for due process to the company."

The school is letting students know they may be able to transfer some credits to other schools.

ITT Technical Institute is closing all of its campuses, which includes two in the Bay Area - Oakland and Concord. The closure impacts over 3,500 students, 8,000 employees and 14 campuses in California. The company has operated vocational schools on more than 130 campuses in 38 states, often under the ITT Technical Institute name. Last year, it enrolled 45,000 students and reported $850 million in revenue.

King said current or recently enrolled students could be eligible to have their student loan debt forgiven and might be able to transfer ITT credits to another school.

The for profit chain school is based Indiana it has been in debt to the government for some time and recently was ordered to pay $152 million.