So Massachusetts is going to have its own public state law school . I can hear your cheers from here. YAY!
I’m not going to start this off by noting that Shakespeare was entirely correct (Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV), because that would be somewhat cliche. Oh, wait.
Let’s think about this for a moment. America is not exactly suffering from a paucity of lawyers, and recent graduates, even from the best schools, had difficulty finding jobs last year.
So the jesters “in charge” of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, facing a record $3 billion budget deficit (and that’s their number, so you know it will be higher, much higher), thought that NOW would be a good time to fund a state law school. I guess I was unaware THAT was the reason for the recent lawyer shortages I was reading about.
If we assume existing law schools don’t purposefully accept anyone other than the best potential students who apply, and in fact do want to accept the best potential students out of their pool of applicants, there ISN’T a shortage of seats for the BEST students. And therein lies one of the main problems.
I’m not saying it isn’t competitive, I’m sure when you put 500 baby sharks together in a tank with one bloody steak, something bad will happen to some of them, but isn’t that the idea? Isn’t it (at least on the face of it, before they tweak it to be all PC and “diverse”) a meritocratic method? I disagree with the notion that we should help every student “afford” whatever crazed delusion strikes his or her fancy. Didn’t get into any of the ten law schools to which you applied? Hmmm. Nobody will lend you the money to attend East BridgeBumble College of Law? Maybe you shouldn’t be a lawyer, didja think of that? And maybe taxpayers shouldn’t help you pay for it.
So, yes, I think what Massachusetts should do is squander more of our limited (and borrowed) resources to fund an unnecessary school to turn out sub-par graduates into an overpopulated profession. Seems eminently logical. We’re “helping” people. By definition this school will be third-tier out of the gates.