In October 2010, Everest College opened its doors in downtown Milwaukee after convincing city officials and business leaders that the for-profit school wouldn't be a fly-by-night diploma mill.

Everest - part of a chain of vocational schools - hoped to attract 1,000 students to its facility near the intersection of W. McKinley Ave. and N. 6th St. The city approved an $11 million bond issue to help finance the campus.

Now, less than two years later, the college is announcing that it is shutting down.

Students were given the news Thursday.

"Do you want to know the honest truth? It's B.S.," complained LaKisha Cotton, a 34-year-old Everest student who has taken out $17,000 in loans to enroll in the school's dental assistant program in May.

Another student said he hadn't even heard the announcement.

"I just want a job," said Chris Mitchell, 23, who is set to graduate in December.

Bob Johnson, president of Everest College's Milwaukee campus, vowed in a statement that current students won't be left high and dry.

All of them will be allowed to finish their programs and on-the-job training. Everest hopes to graduate its last Milwaukee students on March 29. Career placement services will be offered to graduates for up to nine additional months.

Apparently, Everest's problems have been building for months.

"Earlier this summer, Everest College voluntarily stopped enrolling new students at its Milwaukee campus to focus its resources on job placement for our graduates and existing students," Johnson said in his statement.

Officials said the vocational school had not been meeting the job placement goals set by its parent company, Corinthian Colleges Inc. They maintained - believe it or not - that the decision to close the for-profit college was not financial.

Everest currently enrolls 300 students and has 30 employees. At its peak, the college had more than 700 students.

Fortunately, city taxpayers won't have to pick up the tab for the failed school.

"The city is not on the hook for these (tax-free) bonds," said Jeff Fleming, spokesman for the Department of City Development. "They are held by a private entity, so no tax resources are exposed in this."

In 2010, the city Redevelopment Authority approved a plan to allow an investment group led by developer Dan Druml to borrow $11 million from a private lender by selling bonds issued in the authority's name. Druml's group then used the proceeds to convert vacant industrial buildings into the 44,000-square-foot facility now leased by Everest.

Nine years are left on the lease.

Druml did not return several calls to his office Friday.

For-profit colleges have come under heavy attack nationally in recent years. Critics maintain that the schools make money by saddling students with heavy debt loads while doing little to make sure they get jobs after completing their programs.

Several Milwaukee city officials and union leaders at the Milwaukee Area Technical College criticized plans by Corinthian Colleges to set up shop here.

These opponents pointed out Corinthian schools have been sued in the past by students who claim they were misled about whether their credits would transfer to other schools, the accreditation status of their school or their ability to find work after graduating.

In response, Corinthian and Druml put on a full-court press, enlisting local officials, successful graduates, a public relations specialist and a Milwaukee law firm to emphasize that the school would generate tax revenue for the city while providing job opportunities for poor residents. Any complaints, they said, come from just a fraction of the 90,000-plus students attending the Corinthian family of colleges.

"There are a lot of people who made a lot of money off this venture," said Michael Rosen, president of the union that represents MATC's faculty and staff. "The losers are the students, who are primarily African-American and low-income."

Rosen was especially critical of Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, the city's business lobby. Sheehy hosted a reception introducing Everest to the media, local employers and politicians.

On Friday, Sheehy said Druml is a member of MMAC and Everest may have been at the time. He said he doesn't think his group lobbied the Common Council on the issue.

"It's not the first time we've backed a business that failed," Sheehy said. "And it won't be the last."

Ald. Milele Coggs, whose district includes the college campus, had been Everest's chief critic.

Coggs said she is glad that the school is closing. That means, she said, poor residents in her district won't be racking up large debts by securing federal loans to attend Everest.

She said the school shouldn't have been allowed to open in the first place.

"I'm not going to say, 'I told you so,' " Coggs said. "It's just an unfortunate situation."

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice.