Anything Not Permitted Is Forbidden: Code Camp Edition

Learning to code is the future
for today’s emerging labor pool. Even President Barack Obama
says so.
But more important than learning how to code is learning that it’s
illegal for anybody to do anything at all without the permission of
the appropriate government agency.

In California, the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education
(BPPE) is going after “coding bootcamps,” specialized private code
training programs. VentureBeat
reports:

These bootcamps have not yet been approved by the BPPE and are
therefore being classified as unlicensed postsecondary educational
institutions that must seek compliance or be forcibly shut
down.

“Our primary goal is not to collect a fine. It is to drive them
to comply with the law,” said Russ Heimerich, a spokesperson for
BPPE. Heimerich is confident that these companies would lose in
court if they attempt to fight BPPE.

Heimerich stressed that these bootcamps merely need to show that
they are making steps toward compliance: “As long as they are
making a good effort to come into compliance with the law, they
fall down low on our triage of problem children. We will work with
them to get them licensed and focus on more urgent matters,”
Heimerich said.

VentureBeat notes, “The bootcamps fear that they will go
bankrupt as regulatory processes can take up to 18 months.”

But we need that oversight as fraud prevention, right? Without
the government’s protective regulations, people will be bilked out
of their life savings and end up in debt, unlike those students at
major public universities who come away with valuable degrees in
art history or what have you. Beyond that weak logic, government
oversight doesn’t stop private education programs from occasionally

failing miserably anyway.