Heartland Advisors Files 13D and Releases Statement on Lincoln Educational Services

Heartland Advisors, Inc. and other investors (collectively, the “Concerned Lincoln Stockholders” or “we”), today filed a 13D and made the following public statement about Lincoln Educational Services Corporation (Nasdaq: LINC) (“LINC”):

Concerned Lincoln Stockholders is a group of investors who own more than 17% of Lincoln (Nasdaq: LINC). We are dedicated to improving corporate governance at LINC and call upon the Board of Directors to immediately take appropriate action. Such changes are needed in order to bring LINC into compliance with best practices set forth by many corporations, institutional investors and proxy advisory firms. Improvements to corporate governance include, but are not limited to:

• Better align board of director and shareholder interests;
• Implement executive and director share ownership guidelines;
• Remove change of control provisions from the company’s by-laws;
• Enhance the executive compensation program to correlate with shareholder interests; and
• Change the board of directors’ election requirements to provide that directors are elected by a majority vote.

Over the past five years, while the value of all major stock market indexes has appreciated substantially, the share price of LINC has declined in value by more than 75%. Concerned Lincoln Stockholders believe it is time for the Board of Directors to implement best practices of corporate governance and welcomes input from other stockholders.

About the Concerned Lincoln Stockholders:

The participants of Concerned Lincoln Stockholders are Heartland Advisors, Inc., Dr. Kenneth H. Shubin Stein and Charles M. Gilman, as set forth in the Schedule 13D filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on April 28, 2014.

About Heartland Established in 1983, Heartland Advisors, Inc. is an independently owned equity value investment manager based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As of March 31, 2014, the Firm managed approximately $6.0 billion. The Heartland family of value-driven, actively managed portfolios includes distinct U.S. and international strategies, offered through five separately managed account portfolios and four mutual funds: Heartland Value Fund (Investor: HRTVX), Heartland Value Plus Fund (Investor: HRVIX), Heartland Select Value Fund (Investor: HRSVX), and Heartland International Value Fund (HINVX). Learn more at heartlandadvisors.com.

INFORMATION REGARDING THE CONCERNED LINCOLN STOCKHOLDERS, INCLUDING THEIR DIRECT OR INDIRECT INTERESTS, BY SECURITY HOLDINGS OR OTHERWISE IN LINC, IS CONTAINED IN THEIR SCHEDULE 13D INITIALLY FILED WITH THE SEC ON APRIL 28, 2014, WHICH IS AVAILABLE WITHOUT CHARGE ON THE SEC'S WEBSITE AT WWW.SEC.GOV.

Portfolio holdings are subject to change. Current and future holdings are subject to risk. Statements regarding securities are not recommendations to buy or sell the securities discussed, but rather illustrations of our value investment strategy. Such statements represent the portfolio manager’s views when made and are subject to change at any time based on market and other considerations.