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0 pointsvector_spaces10mo ago0 comments

Or predatory/misleading payment schemes, a la Lambda School

0 comments

What is predatory and misleading about it? I just looked it up and it's 17% of your next two years income. Seems pretty simple to me.

p00dles10mo ago

This thread is worth a read regarding Lambda school:

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40067939

- the “dupe” post with a title that specifically refers BloomTech aka Lambda School CEO Austen Allred being banned from all consumer-lending activities: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40071694

*edit to add “dupe” link.

econ10mo ago

We should extort grown-ups to pay for the younglings. 1-2% of your earnings forever.

That way we get professionals who aren't a pack of hyenas looking to put the squeeze on everything an everyone. Those will rip you appart like a sheep with no effort at all.

photonthug10mo ago

About 1-2% of earnings forever, tech workers will be on a path for this anyway, it just won't pay for younglings at all. Suppose you need a bunch of certs to remain accredited in a competitive field. Several of the relevant certs are always expiring on any given year, the costs go up but the wages don't, and the field just gets more competitive so you need all the certs and a degree. If wages also go down because of AI, if you find it difficult to retire.. then yeah, even when you've paid in full for your education once already, you're kind of doomed to keep renting it. Employers tend tend to pay this (for now), but if you're ever not employed you'll have eat the costs yourself as a prerequisite for ever getting employed

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vector_spacesOP10mo ago

If it were that straightforward, then yes, I agree, but it wasn't, see e.g. [1] or the various articles written at the time

Quality of instruction was poor, instructors were often students from bootcamps with no work experience. They misrepresented the nature of the debt agreement that students were entering into:

> The contracts stated,[45] "this extension of credit is a qualified educational loan and is subject to the limitations on dischargeability in bankruptcy contained in Section 523(a)(8) of the United States Bankruptcy Code." This was false, and lead students to believe that it was impossible to discharge their debt.

It turned out that they sold the ISA contracts -- the "X% for next two years income" contracts -- to third parties before the students had finished their education. This means their claim about alignment of incentives with the student was bogus.

They ended up getting fined for deceptive practices by the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, also sued by former students for misrepresenting job placement rates (claiming 86% to prospective students but in internal memos claimed around 50%).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom_Institute_of_Technology#...

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