What’s Behind Law School Accreditation

Is a law degree worth acquiring $250,000 of debt by age 27 in this economy?  That’s the question surrounding a young lawyer profiled in a newspaper account of tough times facing recent law school graduates as law firms, like other employers, cut jobs. The young lawyer has no immediate prospects for paying off his debt.  Many others are in the same boat.

It’s not for the federal government to determine who should go into what field of study, but when students take out federal student loans and are unable to pay, the taxpayers end up with the bill. The federal government estimates that it will make 24.3 million loans totaling $116.4 billion to students and their parents for higher education, including graduate studies, this year alone.  This is a significant amount of tax money obligated to higher education, and history shows only some of the debt will be repaid.  

Revelations have surfaced that at least some law schools offer more merit scholarships to incoming students than they’re prepared to maintain.  The resulting so-called bait and switch puts these students into a financial bind, possibly forcing them to take on debt to stay in school.

This week, I asked the American Bar Association a series of questions to learn more about how the organization goes about accrediting law schools across the country.  The American Bar Association is recognized by the federal Department of Education as the accreditor of law schools.  Accreditation in turn determines eligibility for federal student loans.  

My questions covered how the association assesses a law school’s eligibility for accreditation, including whether it keeps any data on the number and value of merit-based scholarships schools offer, whether it sponsors any educational programs to help students assess how much student debt they can afford to take on and how many schools it has accredited in the last 20 years.

The inquiry came after a committee that advises the Department of Education on the recognition of accrediting agencies took strong issue with the American Bar Association, finding it noncompliant with 17 department regulations, including failing to consider student-loan default rates in assessing programs; having no set policy for handling student complaints; and not having a standard for job placement by its member institutions.

Law school accreditation is like a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.  The accreditation implies that the accrediting agency did its homework on behalf of the students who will indebt themselves to attend and on behalf of the taxpayers who made their loans possible.  As Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and as an advocate for taxpayers, I’m asking the American Bar Association to account for its work.

Friday, July 15, 2011