Facing the harsh realities of the stock market, Grand Canyon Education on  Wednesday cut the price range of its IPO to $12-$14 per share, reducing the deal size to $136.5 million from about $178.5 million .

The 10.5 million-share deal, underwritten by bankers led by Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch, originally had been priced at $18 to $20 per share.  

The Phoenix-based school, which would trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol “LOPE,” plans to use 75 percent of gross proceeds to pay a special distribution to stockholders. Grand Canyon’s backers include Endeavour Capital and Significant Partners.

For the nine months ended September 30, Grand Canyon posted net income of $4.5 million on net revenue of $109.6 million. That compares with net income of $521,000 on net revenue of $68.5 million in the 2007 period.

As of November 19, 117 U.S. IPOs have priced in 2008, 75.9 percent less than at the same time in 2007, according to Renaissance Capital.