[brooklyn_ashey]

Interestingly, and funny you should mention real estate... the Enbars are also very deep into NYC real estate. (Adam Enbar is the CEO of the Flatiron School) And you are right- the real estate situation in NYC is a disaster for rental tenants. It seems like De Blasio and the AG support real change, but when it comes down to it, tenants can't afford to defend themselves against the tycoons who own property even when the tycoons are in the wrong. So, the for-profit schools are an easier target in that they involve a lot less of the wealth of NYC than real estate feeding into politics but the schools are somewhat similar in that they too oppress those who seek a "fair" way into the economy with certain protections offered by the state.

[notyourday]

> It seems like De Blasio and the AG support real change,

If AG supported the real change, he would have used the effectively an unlimited legal muscle his office has to go after the "in the wrong" real estate tycoons.

[brooklyn_ashey]

Absolutely he should! De Blasio did sign off on some "conceptually" important legislation protecting tenants from landlord harassment. He even followed through in some egregious cases--a small but important conceptual step. But affordable housing that is safe for tenants to actually live in remains elusive because the penalties for predatory landlords aren't high enough and because a landmark case involving reciprocal financial responsibility on the prevailing party in housing court made it more precarious for tenants to pursue legal relief. (the case decided that no party thoroughly prevailed, so the landlord didn't have to pay legal costs for the tenant to defend their rights, even though the tenant effectively "won" the case- they came out with a net loss-- and now this case is legal precedent, and a powerful deterrent to tenants who fight for their rights in court)

But in this topic in NYC and in the US in general, there is a real lack of effective, job-getting education, as you of course already know. And then these for-profit ed institutions claim to be solving this problem. I'm not sure oversight can be the way forward here. There is just too much political interdependency here. Perhaps the way forward is for people to speak out about their experience with bold honesty. This is difficult for students to do at these schools, and therein lies the dilemma, because they don't want devalue this $$$ education before it even helps them. What many realize later is that this idea of "culture fit" in every sense of the word will bar many of them for the field. This is why people need to start speaking out about diversity in tech. Well, it has started, but we need a deluge of truth here. We need real reporting on this false idea of a skills gap that isn't real if it doesn't admit members of certain groups unless they are the next Wozniak on crack.