SAN ANTONIO – News that came by email had dozens of students on their feet Monday morning, gathered outside the entrance to the Career Point College campus at Wonderland of the Americas.
Several students shared the email with KSAT 12 News. It stated that Career Point is closing immediately due to an inability to operate financially.
The email stated that the Department of Education had imposed tough restrictions on funding after the school self-reported that there were violations involving student aid.
Kiara Adair, who was among the group gathered Monday, said she was hoping to speak with someone in the administration to find out what to do next.
“We're angry. We're upset,” Adair said. “There are people I know that don't even have food to give to their kids but they want to come to school to better themselves."
"Something went wrong. Somebody went wrong. Mismanaging money. It's not fair to us,” Adair said.
Adair said she was about halfway through a year-long nursing program, which—by student estimates—costs about $30,000.
"How do they expect for us to even trust another school, to go into another school,” Adair said. “How do we know the same thing is not going to happen to us?"
For others, the closing cuts even deeper. Many said they were only about two weeks away from graduation.
"It was the last thing we were expecting. We were going to test out and take our state boards by next month,” said Aaron DeLeon, who was going through the nursing program along with his girlfriend.
"For this to happen, it just turns your life upside down,” DeLeon said. "We already had plans. We were already house-hunting.”
KSAT 12 News attempted to reach out to Career Point College for comment. However, it appears all of the listed numbers for the school already have been disconnected.
According to the Texas Board of Nursing, the board will determine if an applicant for a nursing license meets all the eligibility requirements. The board determines that eligibility if it receives an online affidavit from the program dean/director. However, the board will work with students to allow review of an official transcript sent to them by a third party.
The Board of Nursing could not answer if students would have to start over at another school. It said each circumstance is different, but students can contact other approved nursing programs to inquire about transfer criteria.
The board also said it received no advance notice that Career Point College was closing its doors. Board rules state that schools must notify of its closure four months prior to closure.
The letter sent by Career Point to students and teachers stated:
Two months ago, the Career Point College management team discovered that three long-term employees had collaborated to violate the rules related to student aid funds. After conducting a full investigation, the president of the College self-reported the inappropriate activity to the Department of Education, and provided the Department of Education with a plan to repay all funds taken.Even though no money was stolen, and even though the College had self-report the violation and agreed to repay all inappropriately received funds, the plan was not accepted. Instead, the Department of Education severely restricted government funds going to the College making it impossible for the College to continue operations. Finally, after exhausting all available resources, the College's management has been forced to discontinue operations.Therefore, effective immediately, Career Point College is closed.Since 1984, the College has had an impeccable record of complying with all federal and state regulations. In fact, the College has never had even one student lawsuit in its entire history.
The College has one of the highest completion rates in state and last year the College's students had one of the highest vocational nursing pass rates on the nursing licensing examination (94 percent). The College is very proud of its support of the community and is proud that over its long history, the College has graduated and changed the lives of over 10,000 students.However, in this very hostile government climate against for-profit schools, the Department of Education chose not to give the College a chance to fix its problems and instead chose to effectively terminate the College.To all our very fine students, staff, and faculty, we are so sorry that we have to close this fine, old institution. The college's management is attempting to arrange various teach-out opportunities for our student, and we will provide that Information as it is available.Over the next few weeks, we will be attempting to provide students transfer assistance to other college as that also becomes available.Again, we apologize for closing the school, but in light of the actions by the Department of Education, we had no choice.