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  1. What We Do
  2. Predatory Lending & Private Credit
  3. Private Student Lending
  4. Bootcamps

Bootcamps

We are fighting to hold bootcamp operators accountable for years of mismanagement and abuse.

In the years after the Great Recession, students and workers who struggled to navigate a weak labor market were encouraged to “reskill”—learning computer science and other tech-adjacent skills to better compete for scarce jobs. Private companies seized on students’ and workers’ economic anxiety, marketing short-term, online “coding bootcamps” that offered certificates and other non-degree credentials and promised access to good-paying jobs in tech.

These bootcamp operators often worked in partnership with subprime private student lenders, driving students and workers deeply into debt with little to show for it. Students who attended these programs often struggled to find jobs in tech and many were victims of unaccredited training scams that offered no skills or expertise at all.

What We’re Doing

Bootcamp operators’ history of fraud, abuse, and unlawful conduct made them targets for public enforcement actions, private lawsuits, and congressional oversight. See below to learn more about our work to hold bootcamp operators and private lenders accountable.

Latest Work


  • Press Releases
    Aug 6, 2021

    SBPC Statement on California DFPI Consent Order with Income Share Agreements Servicer Meratas

     Today, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) announced a landmark consent order with New York-based Meratas, Inc., a company that partners with educational institutions to offer students Income Share Agreements or ISAs to finance post-secondary education and training.

    More


  • News Clips
    Jul 1, 2021

    For-Profit Coding School Sued Over Allegedly ‘Predatory’ Student Contracts

    Students attending the San Francisco-based online school from 2016 to 2018 took out ISAs from Make School and ISA provider Vemo Education. The ISAs involved Make School and Vemo providing funding to cover the cost of attendance in exchange for students paying a portion of their post-graduation salary.

    More


  • Lawsuits
    Jul 1, 2021

    Lawsuit Against Coding Academy and ISA Provider Alleges Illegal Lending and Deceptive Practices

    47 former students sued Make School, Inc. an operator of a for-profit coding academy, and Vemo Education, Inc. the Income Share Agreement company, for jointly creating and offering a predatory, high-cost ISA to attend the academy.

    More


  • Press Releases
    Jul 1, 2021

    Income Share Agreement Provider, For-Profit School Operator Sued by Dozens of Former Students for Illegal Lending and Deceptive Practices

    A group of 47 former students announced a groundbreaking lawsuit against Make School, Inc., a venture capital-backed operator of a for-profit coding academy, and Vemo Education, Inc., the largest provider of a risky kind of private student loan known as an Income Share Agreement.

    More


  • Reports
    Jun 11, 2021

    Pushing Predatory Products: How Public Universities are Partnering with Unaccountable Contractors to Drive Students Toward Risky Private Debt and Credit

    This report is the result of an investigation revealing that public colleges and universities nationwide are driving students toward expensive, predatory student debt.

    More


  • Press Releases
    Jun 11, 2021

    New Report Finds Public Universities are Driving Students Toward Risky Private Student Loans

    Public colleges and universities nationwide are driving students toward expensive, predatory student debt according to a new report issued today by the Student Borrower Protection Center.

    More


  • Blogs
    Apr 26, 2021

    The ISA Market is Getting Bigger and Weirder, Putting Borrowers at Increasing Risk

    The practice of building credit products with income-based repayment features and subsequently attempting to evade consumer protection law is rapidly growing. Without action by regulators, ISAs could be the next chapter in the long history of predatory lending.

    More


  • Blogs
    Apr 20, 2021

    It’s Time for Regulators to Scrutinize ISA Companies’ Emerging Rent-a-Bank Schemes

    The SBPC and coalition partners sent a letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency— the nation’s top bank regulator—urging careful scrutiny of the “partnership” between Blue Ridge Bank, a federally chartered national bank, and MentorWorks, a student financing company that offers ISAs.

    More


  • Blogs
    Mar 25, 2021

    New Evidence Underscores the Fair Lending Risks Inherent to Income Share Agreements

    We released a report revealing extensive evidence that the financial technology student lender Stride Funding, may be violating federal fair lending law, illustrating the deep fair lending risks inherent to Income Share Agreements.

    More


  • Blogs
    Mar 19, 2021

    Without Strong Consumer Protections, a History of Borrower Harm Will Repeat Itself During the COVID-Era Rise in Credentialization

    With millions of newly unemployed Americans desperate for help, unscrupulous schools and lenders are pouncing. Without substantial, immediate, and sustained action, tens of billions of dollars will flow to predatory programs that will harm borrowers, their communities, and our country for decades to come—just like in the last recession.

    More

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