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Diving overview:
- A small, for-profit cosmetology college in Missouri closed this week after more than 40 years in business.
- Missouri College of Cosmetology North to shut down permanently on Monday, according to a message on the institution’s voicemail.
- Its owner, Jeff Stanley, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, he told local media refunds students for credits they have paid for but not yet earned. Stanley attributed the shutdown to the spread of the coronavirus and low enrollment.
Diving statistics:
The institution, which usually falls under the Missouri College of Cosmetology, has seen enrollment fluctuate over the past decade. It eventually dropped from nearly 100 students in fall 2012 to just half that in fall 2021, according to the most recent federal data available.
It’s the type of small college think tank that has felt threatened by closure as the pandemic has stressed the economy, along with private nonprofit institutions that were heavily dependent on tuition or financially insecure before the health crisis.
Policy experts said infusions of federal funding for coronavirus relief likely helped save some institutions that would otherwise have closed their doors. Missouri cosmetology college received more than $102,000 from pandemic start-up spending package Passed by Congress in 2020. The law required the college to spend half of its appropriations on students.
It took more than $84,000 from the following legislation, all earmarked for students.
Apparently, this money could not save the University of Missouri from its financial crisis. since Thursday, her website and social media pages disappeared.
Missouri College of Cosmetology, located in Springfield, opened in 1981 and was taken over by the current owners more than a decade later.
It became accredited by the National Accrediting Commission for Career Arts and Sciences in 2000.
The college was also one of several US Department of Education mistakenly included on the list of institutions whose students are eligible for loan forgiveness $6 billion settlement agreement. Students alleged that these colleges cheated them.
A cosmetology college likely won’t be the only for-profit institution to close this year. Bay State College, Massachusetts, will have its accreditation revoked in late August amid allegations of financial mismanagement.
This foreshadows its closure unless the decision is overturned, as institutions without accreditation cannot receive or distribute federal financial aid. Bay State turns to its accreditor, the New England Commission of Higher Education.
Bay State recently came under fire again after her landlord claimed she owed more than $725,000 in back rent and fees.
