A Minneapolis technical school teaches people how to fix up cars. The program pays for itself by selling cars the students repair. The tuition is free. For some students, the Newgate Center is a cheap education. For others it's a route out of poverty.

By Toni Randolph, Minnesota Public Radio
November 23, 2005



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"When Luis Gomez, 20, was looking for a technical school, he considered several programs before he settled on Newgate Education and Training Center in Minneapolis. He said all of the programs offered the auto body training he was looking for, but only Newgate's was free.

"I was actually going to go to Hennepin Tech. But why go there and pay and not really do any hands-on experience? Here you get all free stuff, no tuition or anything," he said.

Students who graduate even get a set of tools for free.

Newgate is a nonprofit organization that is completely self-supporting. It costs about $900,000 a year to run the program. Newgate gets all of its revenue from the sale of cars on which the students train. They buy some of the vehicles, and the rest are donated . . . "

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