That said, there’s still substantial differences between Lambda and a free year in college. For starters, if you have a poor GPA with a California Promise grant, it seems you have pay back the fees. Not sure what Lambda’s equivalent of a GPA is, but they don’t skim your salary if it’s below $50K. I think the more salient point is that the Lambda school has much more direct incentive to land you a good job, and ostensibly that incentive creates a stronger learning environment. Such direct incentive does not exist at a traditional state college, whether you’re paying tuition or getting a free year.
This is all a long way of saying that, while I don’t think Lambda is going to significantly impact the student debt crisis (st least in the near future), to say that they’re just putting a SV spin on the old idea of public education is overly facile.