Big budgets used to rule in college rankings. But that could be changing. A new report from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education is the latest effort among several nationally to score universities on their bang for the buck.
Todd Wolfe, the 41-year-old founder of Deca Financial Services in Fishers, is at the center of a legal feud with Educational Credit Management Corp., an Oakdale, Minn., not-for-profit that insures $35 billion in federal student loans.
The student lender wants to separate its education loan management and consumer bank businesses into two publicly traded entities. The firm is a major employer in Indiana, with more than 2,600 employees at offices in Indianapolis, Fishers and Muncie.
Students who owe Ivy Tech Community College money will have their tax refunds diverted to cover the debt under a new policy the statewide college system is implementing.
Investors have dumped the already-depressed shares of ITT Educational Services Inc. after the operator of for-profit colleges shelled out $46 million for bad private student loans it had backed to help students pay the portion of its pricey tuition that federal loans won’t cover. With fewer ITT graduates able to find jobs, the default rates on these loans has spiked.
Wall Street reacted unfavorably to the settlement Monday, as ITT shares fell as much as 22 percent, to $15 a share. Shares traded for more than $66 about 10 months ago.
For-profit school operator ITT Educational Services Inc. told investors late last month that it had worked out a tentative deal with an outside party that would provide $100 million in loans to its students.
After accepting the post of Purdue University president, Gov. Mitch Daniels finds himself at the heart of the debate over the value of a traditional college degree versus its cost and the needs of employers who simply want skilled workers.
Lucrative incentives paid to federal student-loan collectors are sparking criticism that not-for-profit loan-guaranty agencies are reaping a bonanza from the troubles of former students. USA Funds, the largest guaranty agency, is based in Indianapolis.
The national two-year default rate rose to 8.8 percent last year, from 7 percent in fiscal 2008, according to the Department of Education. Driving the increase was an especially sharp increase among students who borrow from the government to attend for-profit colleges.
The slow economy is hurting progress on an endowment that would help pro bono lawyers repay debt.
The Obama administration gave for-profit colleges more time to comply with rules that will cut off federal aid to institutions whose students struggle the most to repay their government loans.
The Carmel-based operator of for-profit colleges earned $85.4 million in the three months ended March 31, a 2.4-percent decline from the same quarter a year ago.
Companies including ITT Educational Services Inc., DeVry Inc and Career Education Corp. are making loans with “high costs” and “predatory terms,” the group said.
Shares of ITT Educational Services Inc. rose the most in a year Thursday after the for-profit educator reported a fourth-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates.
Carmel-based ITT Educational Services Inc.’s management team will get special cash bonuses if they remain with the company until the end of June, ITT disclosed in a regulatory filing last week.
Student-loan giant lays off about 70 people in Fishers as part of national reshuffling.
Student-loan giant Sallie Mae will consolidate operations in Indiana as part of a company-wide restructuring, creating about 350 jobs at its existing facilities in Fishers and Muncie.
New student-lending rules proposed by the Obama administration could wipe out as much as two-thirds of profits at Carmel-based
ITT Educational Services Inc., some analysts believe.
The Obama administration released a proposal that would tighten for-profit colleges’ access to federal student aid,
threatening an industry that received $26.5 billion in U.S. funds last year. Carmel-based ITT Educational Services
is among those potentially affected.
