[dragonwriter]

> I don't really understand why code schools are needed when self-education has long been an established, effective alternative to CS university education.

There's probably a real utility to vocationally-focused coding schools; OTOH, there's also quite a lot of opportunity for those who are sharp salesmen without a lot of training or technical acumen to take fleece the naïve who are aware of the high pay in the industry and aren't equipped to evaluate the quality of the institutions.

Unregulated, unaccredited educational programs (heck, even with regulated, accredited programs, less-than-stellar programs of this type are still a problem, though there are more checks and balances to identify and weed them out) promising to get people into highly-paying careers have always been a problem.