First of all I want to say that I actually agree with you. I hate the idea of the government backing education loans especially when they go to for-profit universities (University of Phoenix, Full Sail University, etc.).flcath wrote: Okay, for the purposes of this post, I'll accept the fiction that TJSL students chose to become TJSL students on the basis of an informed, rational choice.
I'm fine with them paying out of pocket for to go to TJSL. I'm even fine with them securing a private loan from a lender willing to take the risk on them (banks would do it for an HYS student; do you think they'd do it for a TJSL kid?). But why the hell is the gov't offering this person a loan that (1) will be destructive, on average, to the student, (2) will be destructive to *all* students, since they will have to compete--directly or indirectly--with that (artificially created) student, (3) will be destructive to the legal profession and its clients, since it dilutes the quality of the profession, and (4) will be destructive to the taxpayers who suffer when the student defaults?
Why not offer kids gov't loans for Lamborghinis, using the same logic of "oh, well they knew the risks of going into debt for a $200,000 car on a $30K salary, so who are we to tell them they can't do it?"
However, I disagree that it harms the profession or dilutes the quality of the lawyer. The reason the ABA allows TTTs (instead of going the route of the MD schools you often post about) is because they want broad access to legal services. I am not sure if they have truly increased the access to legal services but I can guarantee you that if you shut down all the TTTs tomorrow there would be a shortage of legal services in the next decade that would dwarf anything the medical profession has ever seen. If the TTTs aren't giving broader access to legal services they are at least holding the amount of access steady.
Second, I don't necessarily think that attending a higher ranked school makes you a better lawyer. Most lawyers agree the things you do in law school and on the LSAT have no direct correlation to your success at actually practicing law. And then there is the study that reported that non-t14 grads were actually making partner at much higher rates then their elite school counterparts. Source: http://www-source.abajournal.com/news/a ... lower-tier
The part about it possibly being destructive to students and tax payers i agree with. If people want to take risks on education it should be with their own money or financed privately. However, implementing a change like that would have to come in the form of larger educations finance reform which is much bigger than a few TTT law schools.