The US has 5% of the world's population but 2/3 of the world's attorneys (at least, so I hear without any factual backup at all). So what are we going to do in California? Groan:
A new law school opening next fall in Southern California is offering a big incentive to top students who might be thinking twice about the cost of a legal education during the recession: free tuition for three years.
Chemerinsky is a big ole liberal. I wonder how long this will remain true:
Scholarship winners will be chosen for their potential to emerge three years later as legal stars on the ascendance. Only the best and brightest need apply, but the school hopes to offer full scholarships to all 60 members of its inaugural class in 2009. Subsequent classes will be on a normal tuition basis. (boldface mine--Darren)
I have no doubt we'll see some interesting contortions of what "best" means.
California's on the verge of bankruptcy. Why are we giving away top-notch legal educations?
California needs more nursing schools, not more law schools. But law schools are more prestigious for a university, which is why Irvine opened the latter instead of the former.
Just another indication of how we do things here in California.
4 comments:
I have nothing to back me up... and I can't remember where I heard it... but I'm under the impression that this was a private school, NOT a state school.
If it's a private school, more power to them, and I'm impressed and pleased with this offer especially during these economic times.
If it's not AND it is costing the state ANY money, I'm all with you on the stupidity of things. (If it's not costing the state a dime, I'm not grumpy about it. ;)
UC Irvine.
We have a nursing shortage here in TN and UT, in an effort to cut costs, is considering slashing the nursing school budget, classes, etc. by half. Pretty damn stupid thing to do when employers are begging for qualified nursing school grads. And you bet they won't be touching any of the humanities majors which produce, not employees, but more bloated, liberal professors who then squeeze more money out of taxpayers and students. When universities realize that part of their job is to provide educated employees to employers, they might find themselves a bit better off financially.
I have wondered about this in Texas as well. There's too many engineering grads as well as baby lawyers. And there simply are not jobs for these folks after they spend $$$$ on high powered educations. Right now, I know of four kids in law school and five in grad school for engineering. I also know six out of work engineers with graduate degrees and years of experience and several depressed lawyers who have lowered themselves to family law because of the pressure to bill hours. What we need are medical personnel that speak, write and read English. My mom's doctor is great, but we can't read her handwriting nor can we understand what she is saying. We have to get a nurse to interpret. I wonder how many malpractice suits will come of this. We also need GOOD teachers. Not failed workers who are using teaching as a stopgap until something better comes along. The universities aren't telling their grads the truth about jobs and life after graduation.
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