Former Gov. Scott Walker supports coding school where a student can pay nothing until landing a job

Former Gov. Scott Walker touted how a new education payment option could help get more students into skills-based training during an appearance at a Milwaukee coding school Tuesday. 

DevCodeCamp offers an income share agreement for students, an alternative financing model popularized by another former Republican governor. DevCodeCamp said it is the first school in the state to start an income share agreement like this. 

Walker visited DevCodeCamp to learn about its new income share agreement and talk with students. DevCodeCamp, which started in 2015, runs a 12-week program where students learn development skills.

The coding school's income share agreement means that students pay no money to DevCodeCamp until after graduating and starting a job that pays more than $40,000 a year. Students will then pay 15% of their income for three years. 

At $40,000 annual salary, students would pay a total of $18,000 over three years — about the same amount as the up-front cost. Total payments will not exceed $30,000.

More than 90% of the program's alumni are employed after graduation earning a median salary of $52,000, according to DevCodeCamp. The program has around 250 alumni. 

Walker toured the coding school based in Milwaukee co-working space Ward4.

The appearance promoting alternative education and financing models was one of a few public appearances for Walker since he lost the 2018 election to Gov. Tony Evers. 

Walker said right now his involvement is "just promoting — it's an interesting topic." Walker's communication's director from his short-lived 2016 presidential campaign, Kirsten Kukowski, runs the public relations firm now working with the coding school. 

Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, is the most prominent higher education institution offering an income share option for students. Its president is former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican.

"If people like Mitch Daniels and others at Purdue are doing it, there’s no reason why it can’t be replicated at a traditional undergraduate program out there," Walker said.

Walker said he thinks income share options could work at higher education institutions in the state like the University of Wisconsin System or Marquette University. 

"I think it could be done anywhere: public, private, college, university," Walker said. "The idea being that it puts the focal point on getting it done quickly. A lot of the times students don’t have the money up front.”

Sarah Hauer can be reached at shauer@journalsentinel.com or on Instagram @HauerSarah and Twitter @SarahHauer. Subscribe to her weekly newsletter Be MKE at jsonline.com/bemke.