A couple years ago, we wrote about the nutty situation in which state regulators for all sorts of industries are really doing more to simply stop competition, rather than any sort of "consumer protection." This is not to say that there isn't a role for regulation in protecting consumers. There may well be, but the more you look at how it works, the more you realize how the system is almost inevitably gamed to be about blocking upstarts and competitors. In the example in that story, we talked about a woman who got in trouble for braiding people's hair without a "cosmetology" license.
Now we've got something happening in California that is even more related to things we're interested in, though no less ridiculous. The California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE) has sent cease-and-desist letters to a bunch of organizations who run "learn to code" events, claiming that they're teaching coding without a license and need to be shut down.
In mid-January, the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE) sent cease and desist letters to Hackbright Academy, Hack Reactor, App Academy, Zipfian Academy, and others. General Assembly confirmed that it began working with BPPE several months ago in order to achieve compliance.
BPPE, a unit in the California Department of Consumer Affairs, is arguing that the bootcamps fall under its jurisdiction and are subject to regulation. BPPE is charged with licensing and regulating postsecondary education in California, including academic as well as vocational training programs. It was created in 2010 by the California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009, a bill aimed at providing greater oversight of the more than 1,500 postsecondary schools operating in the state.
The intent here may be admirable. There are various scam "post secondary education" offerings that don't really provide anyone anything of value and over promise what they're offering. But coding bootcamps are something else entirely. The various groups are saying they're interested in complying with whatever regulations are necessary, but are also worried about the cost and the time that it will take for this process to run its course. Bureaucracies aren't known for their efficiency (or their inexpensiveness).
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