The Maine Department of Education (DOE) issued a no-bid contract this week spending nearly $30,000 on English language classes for adult “multilingual learners” at a cost of $159 per seat, extending a program that launched last June for another year.
According to a procurement justification form (PJF) filed by the Maine DOE on Sunday, over 50 percent of all adult education participants in Maine are learning the English language as “multilingual learners.”
“Smaller adult education programs are increasingly needing to offer English language acquisition classes but often lack the human and capital resources and time to provide high-quality contextualized instruction for MLs (multilingual learners),” the department stated.
The Maine DOE will be paying a total of $28,499 to the EnGen English language learning platform to reserve 250 students for seats in their adult education programs through May 2026.
The department spent $26,250 on same number of seats with the same vendor last year. That contract expired on May 31, 2025, and by Sunday’s contract will now be extended another full year.
According to the Maine DOE, the EnGen platform is different from other English learning platforms due to its “focus on specific careers and work readiness.”
EnGen offers career-oriented English language courses, including courses related to nursing, manufacturing, early childhood education, and commercial driving, among other options.
