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Regency Beauty Institute closed all 79 of its campuses this week, the for-profit chain announced on its website. The Minnesota-based Regency apologized to students for the "abrupt nature" of the news.
The beauty school chain had been struggling with sagging enrollments and losing millions of dollars in recent years, reported the Star-Tribune. And the chain's owner told the newspaper that gainful employment regulations -- new federal rules aimed at for-profit and other vocational programs -- threatened Regency's access to federal financial aid.
"In short, the organization does not have the cash to continue to run the business. There are multiple intertwined reasons: declining numbers of cosmetology students nationwide, a negative characterization of for-profit education by regulators and politicians that continues to worsen, and, in light of these factors, an inability to obtain continued financing," the company said. "This is not another case of a school being forced to shut down because it was accused of wrongdoing. We held ourselves to high educational and ethical standards."
