WyoTech May Close

The company which owns WyoTech in Laramie has warned that they may not be able to continue if they do not find a solution to restrictions placed on them for federal student aid.

Corinthian Colleges Inc., which is the parent company of the WyoTech, Everest Institute, Everest College and Heald brands, has been placed on an increased level of financial oversight by the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid office. This, according to the Department of Education, comes after the company failed to provide documentation requested of them.

The Department of Education announced that the company would have the increased monitoring after they did not provide documents to address concerns that they were falsifying job placement data in marketing claims to students and allegations of altering grades and attendance records. The Department of Education notified Corinthian Colleges of the heightened monitoring on June 12, and the company acknowledged it yesterday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the Department of Education, Corinthian Colleges was sent five letters over a course of five months requesting information on job placement claims for graduates, but documents were not provided.

The increased oversight means that funds provided to the schools for federal student aid will not be made available to the institution for 21 days after submitting student enrollment data. Those funds are usually available in one to three days.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, Corinthian Colleges enrolls about 72,000 students across the nation and receives $1.4 billion in federal financial aid every year.

The company said in the Securities and Exchange filing that the 21 day waiting period is expected to significantly harm the company’s operational cash flow. It states that the company is looking into financing to bridge the shortfall, but has been unsuccessful. According to the filing, if the company is unable to obtain financing, they could be unable to continue running.

With the announcement, the future of Corinthian Colleges and WyoTech is unclear.