The problem with your comparison is that a textbook does not claim to somehow fast-track you to $100/year. It only claims to help you with the current step in your learning which Treehouse doesn't even do effectively.

I tried the Treehouse lectures when I started learning how to code and found them long-winded and basic. A friend of mine also came to the same conclusion independently; he even called to warn me to avoid Treehouse if i hadn't tried it a already... I already had.

In their marketing, Treehouse makes a lot of promises their material is unable to deliver which for me is the big problem here.

Their "perceived value" comes from the fact that they package their basic content very well in a pretty wrapper but these kids would be better off with code-academy, code-school and then the django book or Hartl's Rails tutorial.

That would put them on a path to 100k/year, not Treehouse but as usual, the school officials wont do their research well so they'll just pick the shiniest option.

The only winner here is Treehouse; good for them.