Summary: Universities, students, and the ABA understand that student debt is out of control so extra effort is being done to decrease the amount and help students understand loans better.
Receiving an education is not cheap. Student loans affect almost all college graduates and those that go on to graduate school are sometimes left with loans that are unmanageable. Law schools are no exception. In 2012 the average graduate from a private school has $122,158 in loans and from a public school, graduates end up with $84,000, according to the American Bar Association.
The Financing of Legal Education has established a 15-person ABA Task Force to take on the issues concerning student debt. The force came up with several possible resolutions involving better financial counseling for students on loan and repayment programs. The American Bar Association House of Delegates will take on the suggestion that law schools offer more debt counseling and financial transparency to current and future students.
The former president of the ABA, Dennis Archer blames a lot of the lack of funds for students to qualify for from a lack of state support to colleges and universities. To make up for the lack of support, those schools have had to raise tuition.
How law schools offer the counseling and debt support will be up to them to decide. They want the schools to experiment and find what works for them best. The Task Force also suggested coming up with alternative ways of cutting costs for students. William Mitchell College of the Law in St. Paul is trying out a hybrid law degree for the classes that can be done online. Northwestern Law is making their three year J.D. degree possible to be done in two.
Everyone understands that achieving an education isn’t going to be cheap but it is in everyone’s best interest to find ways to make it more accessible and less expensive so a student’s debt can remain lower.
Source: https://bol.bna.com/aba-mulls-law-school-debt-counseling/
Photo: finance.yahoo.com