Just a year and a half after going private, Pittsburgh-based Education Management Corp. has announced plans to become a public company again.

The owner of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and dozens of other post-secondary schools, plans to offer up to $500 million worth of stock to the public, according to a preliminary filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The number of shares to be sold, the offering price and the timing of the offering have not yet been set, the company said.

The Downtown-based company, which has 81 locations in 26 states and Canada, went private in June 2006 under a $3.4 billion buyout by Providence Equity Partners and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners. At that time, management said going private would give the company more freedom to focus on investing for long-term growth instead of trying to satisfy Wall Street's hunger for short-term profits. Top executives at the time made millions on the transaction.

Founded in 1962, Education Management first went public in October 1996.

John Iannone, assistant vice president for investor relations, yesterday said he could not discuss the company's reasons for deciding to go public again, citing the SEC's "quiet period" rules for companies about to make a public offering.

Education Management recorded a loss of $5.5 million on revenue of $361.3 million for the three months ended Sept. 30 vs. a loss of $9.8 million on revenue of $290.5 million for the same period a year earlier.

For the fiscal year ended June 30, the company earned $32.4 million on revenue of $1.36 billion compared with profits of $80.7 million on revenue of $1.17 billion in fiscal 2006.