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Hey everyone, Pretty excited to reach settlement on this one. The DFPI is a new regulatory agency in California that was tasked with reviewing Lambda School’s

Hey everyone, Pretty excited to reach settlement on this one. The DFPI is a new regulatory agency in California that was tasked with reviewing Lambda School’s new incentive-aligned tuition (https://lambdaschool.com/tuition/tuition-options https://lambdaschool.com/tuition/tuition-options) in California. They came back requesting that we update a bankruptcy provision in the agreement to clarify that these agreements are dischargeable in bankruptcy, and to do a review of our marketing to make that clear. All things we’re happy to do, and always happy to work with regulators!

akanet 5y ago
Austen call me we can work through this gaffe
maximilianroos 5y ago
I'm inclined to be on your side — the sum total of Lambda's impact on the world is likely highly positive, whatever happens in the details. But that makes this response confusing — I was hoping to see a refutation of the regulator's claims or, failing that, a thoughtful discussion on what went wrong. Is the regulator accurate? If so, were the statements significant? If so, what happened?
- vmception 5y ago
  The response isn't confusing when the first duty of the settlement is to notify existing students and everyone else that the bankruptcy dischargeability provision language is not accurate, and thats what they said in the response gigglesnort
pradn 5y ago
Your bizarre cheeriness in the face of "Agreeing to End Deceptive Educational Financing Practices" is offputting, especially when coupled with the way college financing has led to generational deadweight, anxiety, and hopelessness.
- wakeywakeywakey 5y ago
  Reminds me of the 'Human Heater' pitch from the Silicon Valley show [1] [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di3fPj0pUbQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di3fPj0pUbQ
  - judge2020 5y ago
    > It has not been shown conclusively that microwaves (or other non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation) have significant adverse biological effects at low levels. Some, but not all, studies suggest that long-term exposure may have a carcinogenic effect. He might not be entirely wrong. They're still not going to sell any to the general public, though, especially if it is carcinogenic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave#Health_effects:~:text=It%20has%20not%20been%20shown%20conclusively,exposure%20may%20have%20a%20carcinogenic%20effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave#Health_effects:~:tex...
- davidw 5y ago
  What's he supposed to do? Rant about the government? Making the best of it and moving on is probably the best move, since it doesn't sound like a big hit to their business. Also, it looks like you get out of Lambda School debts via bankruptcy, which you don't with regular college, so that's... an improvement?
  - rajacombinator 5y ago
    Not to mention that Lambda School is an attempt to actually align the incentives of school and students, which is the main problem with educational financing today. Wrong target to pile on.
    - sugarwater 5y ago
      As a student that went through the program, I question if their incentives were aligned. During the middle of my enrollment at the program (Sept 2020), the school suddenly dropped all notion of grading, code review, and attendance, let alone the length of the program. It remained this way for 3 months, 50% of the length of the program. This is a broad description of the changes, but I want to emphasize that the changes were terrible, _many_ students complained, and the school essentially whistled with fingers in their ears.
pseudalopex 5y ago
They requested you stop making false claims about dischargeability. And about the program being free. Calling the former clarifying is deceptive. So is omitting the latter.
- jamiequint 5y ago
  Go whine and be negative somewhere else. You fucking people, seriously.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
sandofsky 5y ago
This is a bizarre response. You were caught putting deceptive language in your contracts. You now have to hire a third-party to ensure all of your contracts comply with the law, and 90 days to review all of your previous marketing material and certify it wasn't dishonest. You're on probation. This is nothing to be excited about. This is similar to when you fought with the BPPE for a year because they insisted you can't operate in California while offering ISAs. After you finally gave up the fight, and agreed to not offer ISAs, they approved you. You said: > Their approval is a huge testament to our team and our students, as well as an official endorsement of our all-remote, career-focused educational model. The BPPE does not endorse schools. They simply said you were no longer operating illegally.
- devmunchies 5y ago
  I don't know anything about lambda school outside the HN threads but it seems like you're in every lambda school thread going back 'n forth with allen. kinda funny honestly. makes your arguments seem a little less credible since you clearly have a bone to pick but like I said, I don't know anything about lambda school. maybe you're justified, idk.
- lacker 5y ago
  You were caught putting deceptive language in your contracts. Honestly, the California website claims this was "deceptive" but to me that seems like an exaggeration. Lambda claimed this thing wasn't dischargeable in bankruptcy, the state of California says actually it is. Okay, fine. It doesn't mean Lambda was doing something malicious. It's not like California makes it extremely transparent and clear what the rules are for starting a new sort of educational financing. When you do something new that's covered unclearly by California regulations it is no surprise to have this sort of issue. To me the real injustice is that California does not allow ISAs. Students are not idiots incapable of making deals for themselves, and the big ripoff in education right now isn't ISAs at coding schools, it's taking out a regular student loan to get a worthless degree at a mediocre university. All of this argument about "catching Lambda's deception" is a distraction from the real problems with education.
  - 5y ago
Pyramus 5y ago
I've done and seen quite some 'spin' on things as an entrepreneur, but this complete lack of humbleness takes the cake for me.
rexreed 5y ago
The above response is a great example of spin, or if you prefer, this nice euphemism: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/polishing+a+turd https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/polishing+a+turd
nickpinkston 5y ago
What do you think the material impact on students of this will be? ie Was anyone harmed, or is this just preventative? Seems like the latter, but just want to make it clear for people. Was it previously a gray zone on the dischargeability? Did something change in the law? Was Lambda just being cautious in saying it ::may not:: be dischargeable? Something else? I remember hearing that ISA case law isn't very deep, so I can imagine that there may be more gray zones.
youre_a_scammer 5y ago
Oh will you just shut up and go away forever. Scamming people with your predatory startup and trying to brush it all off with this faux cheeriness really is disgusting. What is even the point of your existence? You're just a parasite. Get out of here.
- dang 5y ago
  Breaking the site guidelines this egregiously will get your main account banned as well, so please don't do any more of this.

akanet 5y ago

Austen call me we can work through this gaffe

maximilianroos 5y ago

I'm inclined to be on your side — the sum total of Lambda's impact on the world is likely highly positive, whatever happens in the details. But that makes this response confusing — I was hoping to see a refutation of the regulator's claims or, failing that, a thoughtful discussion on what went wrong. Is the regulator accurate? If so, were the statements significant? If so, what happened?

vmception 5y ago
The response isn't confusing when the first duty of the settlement is to notify existing students and everyone else that the bankruptcy dischargeability provision language is not accurate, and thats what they said in the response gigglesnort

pradn 5y ago

Your bizarre cheeriness in the face of "Agreeing to End Deceptive Educational Financing Practices" is offputting, especially when coupled with the way college financing has led to generational deadweight, anxiety, and hopelessness.

wakeywakeywakey 5y ago
Reminds me of the 'Human Heater' pitch from the Silicon Valley show [1] [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di3fPj0pUbQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di3fPj0pUbQ
- judge2020 5y ago
  > It has not been shown conclusively that microwaves (or other non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation) have significant adverse biological effects at low levels. Some, but not all, studies suggest that long-term exposure may have a carcinogenic effect. He might not be entirely wrong. They're still not going to sell any to the general public, though, especially if it is carcinogenic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave#Health_effects:~:text=It%20has%20not%20been%20shown%20conclusively,exposure%20may%20have%20a%20carcinogenic%20effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave#Health_effects:~:tex...
davidw 5y ago
What's he supposed to do? Rant about the government? Making the best of it and moving on is probably the best move, since it doesn't sound like a big hit to their business. Also, it looks like you get out of Lambda School debts via bankruptcy, which you don't with regular college, so that's... an improvement?
- rajacombinator 5y ago
  Not to mention that Lambda School is an attempt to actually align the incentives of school and students, which is the main problem with educational financing today. Wrong target to pile on.
  - sugarwater 5y ago
    As a student that went through the program, I question if their incentives were aligned. During the middle of my enrollment at the program (Sept 2020), the school suddenly dropped all notion of grading, code review, and attendance, let alone the length of the program. It remained this way for 3 months, 50% of the length of the program. This is a broad description of the changes, but I want to emphasize that the changes were terrible, _many_ students complained, and the school essentially whistled with fingers in their ears.

pseudalopex 5y ago

They requested you stop making false claims about dischargeability. And about the program being free. Calling the former clarifying is deceptive. So is omitting the latter.

jamiequint 5y ago
Go whine and be negative somewhere else. You fucking people, seriously.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

sandofsky 5y ago

This is a bizarre response. You were caught putting deceptive language in your contracts. You now have to hire a third-party to ensure all of your contracts comply with the law, and 90 days to review all of your previous marketing material and certify it wasn't dishonest. You're on probation. This is nothing to be excited about. This is similar to when you fought with the BPPE for a year because they insisted you can't operate in California while offering ISAs. After you finally gave up the fight, and agreed to not offer ISAs, they approved you. You said: > Their approval is a huge testament to our team and our students, as well as an official endorsement of our all-remote, career-focused educational model. The BPPE does not endorse schools. They simply said you were no longer operating illegally.

devmunchies 5y ago
I don't know anything about lambda school outside the HN threads but it seems like you're in every lambda school thread going back 'n forth with allen. kinda funny honestly. makes your arguments seem a little less credible since you clearly have a bone to pick but like I said, I don't know anything about lambda school. maybe you're justified, idk.
lacker 5y ago
You were caught putting deceptive language in your contracts. Honestly, the California website claims this was "deceptive" but to me that seems like an exaggeration. Lambda claimed this thing wasn't dischargeable in bankruptcy, the state of California says actually it is. Okay, fine. It doesn't mean Lambda was doing something malicious. It's not like California makes it extremely transparent and clear what the rules are for starting a new sort of educational financing. When you do something new that's covered unclearly by California regulations it is no surprise to have this sort of issue. To me the real injustice is that California does not allow ISAs. Students are not idiots incapable of making deals for themselves, and the big ripoff in education right now isn't ISAs at coding schools, it's taking out a regular student loan to get a worthless degree at a mediocre university. All of this argument about "catching Lambda's deception" is a distraction from the real problems with education.
- 5y ago

Pyramus 5y ago

I've done and seen quite some 'spin' on things as an entrepreneur, but this complete lack of humbleness takes the cake for me.

rexreed 5y ago

The above response is a great example of spin, or if you prefer, this nice euphemism: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/polishing+a+turd https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/polishing+a+turd

nickpinkston 5y ago

What do you think the material impact on students of this will be? ie Was anyone harmed, or is this just preventative? Seems like the latter, but just want to make it clear for people. Was it previously a gray zone on the dischargeability? Did something change in the law? Was Lambda just being cautious in saying it ::may not:: be dischargeable? Something else? I remember hearing that ISA case law isn't very deep, so I can imagine that there may be more gray zones.

youre_a_scammer 5y ago

Oh will you just shut up and go away forever. Scamming people with your predatory startup and trying to brush it all off with this faux cheeriness really is disgusting. What is even the point of your existence? You're just a parasite. Get out of here.

dang 5y ago
Breaking the site guidelines this egregiously will get your main account banned as well, so please don't do any more of this.