Helpful hackers vs. college regulators: why are state governments cracking down on innovative coding academies?

• Author: Beato, Greg

No one has ever called Milwaukee "the Silicon Valley of the Midwest." Or even "the Silicon Valley of Wisconsin." And they're not likely to any time soon, especially if state regulators get their way.

In November 2014, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that the city would be getting its first intensive computer coding school, a.k.a. "computer boot camp" or "coding academy," at the beginning of 2015. That didn't happen. In January the Journal-Sentinel reported that the Global Entrepreneurship Collective, the nonprofit organizer behind the proposed Ward 5 Code Camp, would be postponing its debut to address regulatory requirements imposed by a state agency, the Educational Approval Board (EAB).

The EAB oversees private postsecondary education institutions in Wisconsin that are vocational in nature and not licensed or regulated by any other agency or public board. To comply with state regulations, Ward 5 must complete a lengthy application, pay the EAB a $2,000 fee, and buy a $25,000 surety bond. Unable to complete these tasks by its January start date, Ward 5 refunded tuition fees to students who had signed up for its $6,500 program, and said it would try to open at a later date.

What exactly is the EAB trying to protect the citizens of Wisconsin from--besides the possibility of obtaining a high-paying job in the tech industry?

Coding academies are a relatively new phenomenon. Typically, they offer immersive programs that teach students how to code in JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, and other in-demand languages in just 9 to 12 weeks. Classes are held on a daily basis, generally from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and many programs tell students they should expect to devote at least 20-40 more hours a week beyond classroom time to complete their assignments. Ward 5's $6,500 tuition is on the low end of the coding academy spectrum. Dev Bootcamp, located in San Francisco, charges $13,950; Hack Reactor, another San Francisco coding academy, charges $17,780.

For the sake of comparison, tuition for a 12-week quarter at Stanford University runs around $15,000 these days. But if these coding academy upstarts are charging as much as our most elite institutions of higher learning, they're also promising extremely favorable outcomes for students who complete the accelerated programs. On its website, Hack Reactor claims a "99 percent graduate hiring rate," with average starting salaries at $105,000. Zipfian Academy says that 91 percent of its graduates get jobs at...