The vise appears to be tightening at the for-profit education giant ITT Educational Services. Its profits are collapsing, its stock is below $2, and last Monday the company got bad news from the Education Department in Washington, a main overseer.

ITT, which operates 138 campuses in 39 states, said it had received a letter from the government demanding $44 million to cover potential obligations that might arise, such as student refunds. The department cited increased risks at ITT as the reason for the demand.

A call for $44 million may not sound like a death knell. But it was just the latest in a series of setbacks at ITT. And if the past is prologue, the company’s woes could have dire consequences for its current and former students. The situation has uncanny echoes of a collapse of a for-profit educational institution about two decades ago.

According to its most recent financial statement, ITT provides career-oriented programs to 43,000 students at ITT Technical Institute and Daniel Webster College locations.