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candystripper -> RE: Grand New Party? (6/29/2008 11:47:52 AM)
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quote:
One thing I disagree with you on, is the closing of schools that don't provide "marketable skills". Education is more than just something linked to a paycheck. Now, added emphasis on learning that boosts earnings is fine, but not the be-all, end-all of going to school, IMO.
Level
Level, consider the market sector with which I am most familar: legal services.
As late as the 1920's it was not neccesary to attend a law school to become a lawyer. During the 20th century, the ABA fought for and won control of the legal education process and the result is now a student must first obtain a B.S or B.A. before he can even apply for admittance to a 3 year law school, after which he will graduate with the J.D. we now know.
American Lawyers, by Richard L. Abel, published by Oxford Univeristy Press, revised edition 1990.
Once law schools as we now know them came to be the norm, they began to proliferate. By 1990, American law schools wre graduating 35,000 students a year. An estimated 1 million American existed by 2000; or approximately 300 lawyers for very 100,000 people in the general population. In 1940, only 178 law schools existed in America, with average enrollments of only 173 students.
The Irony of Reform: Roots of American Political Disenchantment, by G. Calvin Mackenzie, published by Happers Collins Canada, Ltd, revised edition 1997.
As of 2008, there were 200 American law schools accredited by the American Bar Association. This figure does not include schools in the accrediation process or unaccredited schools.
http://www.abanet.org/abanet/media/release/news_release.cfm?releaseid=359
Can the market for legal services absorb this continued growth rate?
Average real incomes of lawyers fell between 1940 and the present, and now many graduates find only entry level positions paying $20k. Outsourcing of legal services and drop in population growth rates bode ill for future lawyers.
Is there a value to education apart from the ability to generate income? Certainly. Can lawyers find work in other fields? Sometimes -- but they compete at a disadvantage with applicants who trained specifically for those fields.
What fueled the growth? Some sociological factors; the influx of women and minority students, as well as older students. The commonly held but flawed perception that 'lawyers are wealthy'. This may never have been true, and certainly is not now. Some lawyers -- a few -- do earn considerable salaries -- but the vast majority have been earning less and less, and finding jobs at all has become harder.
If the working poor and poor seek entry to the middle class they are ill-served by the expansion in the number of law schools. How are they better off after graduation if they can only earn $20k and have new debt of over $100k to service?
Who is served by expanding the number of law schools? Employees of the schools, from the Dean to the janitor. Law professors. The ABA. Bar associations in every state. Whoever profits from the LSAT. Private companies like Bar-Bri that prepare graduates to pass the bar.
In short, everyone but the students.
candystripper
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