Law School Tuition and Fairness

Over at Balkinization, Brian Tamanaha highlights an issue that should get more attention, especially at Catholic law schools:

One has to wonder . . . how long [these skyrocketing tuition rates] can continue, as we collectively sprint past $30,000 per year (not counting expenses) and beyond. The economic value of a law degree for graduates from elite law schools, and for top students from non-elite law schools, would seem to handily justify the price. . . . But what about the overwhelming majority of law graduates (all those not in the favored categories above) for whom a law degree offers a far lower earning potential? . . .

This brings me to the fairness issue. A peculiar system has developed in many non-elite institutions, in which the students most likely to make the least money end up subsidizing the legal education of the students most likely to make the most money.  The way "merit" scholarships work, students with high LSAT scores--which law schools covet in the effort to shape their profile for the purposes of U.S. News rankings--get large discounts (with some paying no tuition at all). It is not the case, of course, that high LSAT students always rank at the top of the first year class, or that the lower LSAT students end up at the bottom half of the class. But when it does happen (often enough), the result is that the lowest ranked students pay full price, while the highest ranked students pay much less. And the lowest ranked students get the worst paying jobs (and sometimes no job), while the highest ranked students get the best paying jobs.

This system is understandable--and one can come up with an argument that the lower students benefit from the system as well because maximizing the LSAT profile of the law school enhances the value of their degree (though that does not mean they will make any more money)--but it is also, well, perverse.

Rob