| Lincoln Tech | |
| Established: | 1946 |
| President: | Scott M. Shaw |
| Head Label: | Non-Executive Chairman |
| Head: | J. Barry Morrow |
| Campus: | Multiple campuses located in Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas. |
Lincoln Tech is an American group of for-profit postsecondary vocational institutions headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey.[1] Each campus is owned and operated by Lincoln Educational Services Corporation (NASDAQ:), a provider of career-oriented post-secondary education.
As of March 31, 2019, Lincoln had 10,680 students enrolled at 22 campuses.[2]
Lincoln schools are accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC)
The founder and first president of Lincoln was J. Warren Davies. The first Lincoln Technical Institute was established in 1946 in Newark, New Jersey, to serve World War II veterans returning from overseas. At Lincoln, these veterans found training programs to help them learn career-specific skills, and transition into civilian careers in installation and servicing of air conditioning and refrigeration equipment. Automotive courses were added in 1948. Lincoln established traveling schools to offer NAPA-certified training, which certified over 11,000 mechanics between 1955 and 1965.
In 1969, Ryder acquired Lincoln Technical Institute and two other technical schools with campuses in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. By 1977, Lincoln Technical Institute had ten campuses in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington, D.C. Lincoln Technical Institute acquired court reporting school The Cittone Institute and its three campuses in 1994, leading the group to have 14 campuses by the school's 50th anniversary in 1996.
Stonington Partners and Hart Capital purchased Lincoln Technical Institute in 2000. The school continued expanding, acquiring Denver Automotive and Diesel College and Computer-Ed Business Institutes in 2001, Lincoln College of Technology in Nashville (previously the Nashville Auto-Diesel College) in 2003, and the Southwestern College of Business and New England Technical Institute[3] in 2004.
Lincoln Educational Services Corporation made its initial public stock offering in 2005, trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol LINC. California Regent Richard C. Blum (Dianne Feinstein's husband) was a key investor, with $24,000,000 in stock.[4]
Also in 2005, the group acquired the Euphoria Institute of Beauty Arts and Sciences. Further acquisitions include the Harrison Career Institute in 2007, Briarwood College in December 2008 and the Baran Institute of Technology schools (Baran Institute of Technology, Connecticut Culinary Institute, Americare School of Nursing, Engine City Technical Institute, and Clemens College) in 2009. Lincoln completed the purchase of Florida Medical Training Institute in 2012 and abruptly closed all campuses in 2014 without a teach-out.[5] [6]
In 2014, The New York Times reported that 50% of all Lincoln schools failed proposed gainful employment regulations.[7] Sixty of Lincoln Tech's programs had passing rates, thirteen had "zone" rates, and five programs failed. Of the failing programs three have been closed and the remaining two are being taught-out.[8]
In 2018, the Lincoln College of New England campus in Southington, Connecticut was closed.[2]
Lincoln Educational Services operates through the following brands: Lincoln Technical Institute, Lincoln College of Technology, Euphoria Institute of Beauty Arts and Sciences, and Lincoln Culinary Institute.
Southington, Connecticut (2018)
Lincoln Tech structures program offerings to provide students with a practical, career-oriented education and position for them for attractive entry-level job opportunities in their chosen fields.,[11] Lincoln Tech offers training in five program verticals; Automotive, Health Sciences, Skilled Trades, Hospitality Services, and Business/I.T. Twelve campuses offer training in five automotive fields, eleven campuses offer training in nine healthcare fields, thirteen campuses offer training in five skilled trade fields, three campuses offer training in five hospitality service fields, and seven campuses offer training in 6 business/IT fields.
Lincoln Educational Services faced an investor lawsuit on behalf of those who purchased company stock between March 3, 2010, and August 5, 2010. The plaintiffs alleged that Lincoln Educational Services issued a series of materially false and misleading statements related to its business and operations in violation of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The case was dismissed by the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey in September 2011.[12]
In 2013, USA Today, based on data from 2009 to 2010, called one of the company's 31 campuses a "Red Flag school", one which has "a higher loan default rate than graduation rate."[13]
In October 2014, Massachusetts state attorney general Martha Coakley announced an investigation into Lincoln's for-profit schools in the state of Massachusetts.[14]
In 2015, Lincoln Educational Services agreed to repay approximately $1 million to graduates of its criminal justice program in Somerville and Lowell, Massachusetts. The Massachusetts' Attorney General found that students were unable to find work in their fields of study, and the company included unrelated jobs in its placement data. According to the Boston Globe, "The school also allegedly told recruiters to 'establish unhappiness, create urgency,' and 'bring out the pain' to pressure prospective students to attend the school instead of military or community college. The for-profit school instructed recruiters to contact students at least seven times within the first three days to convince them to enroll."[15]
In 2022, Lincoln Educational Services was one of 153 institutions included in student loan cancellation due to alleged fraud. The class action was brought by a group of more than 200,000 student borrowers, assisted by the Project on Predatory Student Lending, part of the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School. A settlement was approved in August 2022, stating that the schools on the list were included "substantial misconduct by the listed schools, whether credibly alleged or in some instances proven."[16] [17] Lincoln Educational Services challenged the settlement. The Supreme Court rejected the challenge in April 2023.[18]