ITT settlement to impact students of Springfield campus

Former students of ITT Technical Institute are set to receive new settlement funds four years after the school closed.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt's office yesterday announced he reached a settlement with PEAKS Trust, a private loan program that was run by the for-profit college and affiliated with entities of Deutsche Bank, according to a news release. Schmitt and a coalition of 47 other state attorneys general secured the agreement.

“This settlement will bring millions in debt relief for former ITT students in Missouri and across the country who were pressured and coerced to take high-interest loans,” Schmitt said in the release.

Missouri is slated to receive more than $9.1 million out of the nationwide $330 million settlement. In Missouri, the funds will go toward debt relief by way of canceling principal, interest, fees and charges for more than 1,300 borrowers.

Chris Nuelle, a spokesperson for Schmitt's office, said it's not yet known how much of the funding would go toward students at the former ITT Tech campus in Springfield.

ITT Tech had operated at 3216 S. National Ave. in Kelly Plaza. Its space was taken over in 2017 by telemarking company TeleTech Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: TTEC), according to Springfield Business Journal archives.

The Springfield school was among all of ITT Tech's campuses that closed in 2016. The Carmel, Indiana-based tech school chain had been accused of putting students and millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded federal student aid at risk via improper accounting and grant practices, according to SBJ archives.

ITT filed for bankruptcy in 2016 as the U.S. Department of Education restricted its access to federal student aid, according to the release. It also had Missouri campuses in Arnold, Earth City and Kansas City.