That left a big gap in the academic offerings in the South Sound. Aspiring attorneys now have to travel — or move — to Seattle or Portland for a law degree; nothing else is available between the two cities.Good gravy, you were trying to run a city of 200k with no law school for a 50-mile radius?!? Anarchy! Ridiculousness! Absurdity! Flunderbung! Move an hour away for law school!? What the fuck were they thinking?!
Thankfully, the Washington state senate knows a problem when it sees one:
As part of the Senate budget, they’re including $400,000 to help jump-start donations to a [Univ. of Washington-Tacoma] program.
...
A new law school isn’t just something that would be nice for the South Sound. It’s badly needed. Competition for entry into the UW’s law school is fierce, and annual tuition at SU costs $11,500 more than at UW for in-state students.
The legal profession — like many others — is starting to feel the effects of the baby boomer retirement wave. About 25 percent of the state’s practicing attorneys say they plan to retire within the next few years, according to a Washington State Bar Association survey, and almost 75 percent of the bar’s membership is at least 50 years old.THINK OF THE CHILDREN AND GET THAT TOWN SOME LAWYERS. My God, at this rate, if they don't produce a boatload more, they're going to run out of lawyers in 30 years!
Personally, I love the idea of throwing seed money in to lure donations. Just like a bartender who throws a $5 into the jar to encourage others. Because, traditionally, where a government wastes money, it is usually followed swiftly by a rash of right-thinking people who want to follow suit and fund completely ridiculous and unnecessary ventures that assist absolutely no one except the people who can claim a salary from the enterprise.
And besides, with the two Rutgers schools becoming one, we really need to add another public law school in America to keep the balance. It was already bad enough that a state of 7 million tried to survive on just one public law school. If I didn't like their idea of opening a new branch so much, I would accuse them of intentional dereliction of duty for going this long without finding a way to get more young lawyers to be lemmings in Washington instead of California, Michigan, or Florida.
Go Mariners.
I really hope this is a night program. A day program in Tacoma would be ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI believe they want to start as a 30-person night program, but as everyone knows, once the program is in place, the sky is the limit!
DeleteOh, Jesus H fucking Christ. Badly needed? That's why Indiana Tech Law Skule opened with only a quarter of its projected class size—and will probably finish the year with considerably fewer. That's why enrolment is down, in most cases very substantially, at all but 16 of the 200-odd law schools in the US. That's why the ABA itself is finally admitting that most graduates are unable to find work in law.
ReplyDeleteJust for this, I am hereby boycotting wine from Washington State.
Seattle is home to two ABA-accredited law schools - and Spokane has one in Gonzaga. What about Olympia or Bellevue? Perhaps, the ABA dolts can approve a law school in Yakima, Walla Walla or Pullman. After all, these cities are sorely in need of such an in$TTTTiTTTTuTTTTion of "higher education," right?!
ReplyDeleteI love your writing. You really have a great sense of humor.
ReplyDelete$400,000 in taxpayer funds to jump-start this monstrosity. Wow.
ReplyDeleteWhy not spend $400,000 on something useful like a small business center, technology center, or community office space?
Who in the hell suggested this? I wouldn't be shocked if we find out that some education lobbyist was behind this. The education industry is no different from weapons manufacturers when it comes to coercing the government and getting our taxpayer funds wasted on their self-interested projects. The carveouts and exemptions enjoyed by the education industry at the federal level are staggering (e.g., university lobbyists can pay for multi-day trips for members of Congress where the lobbyist accompanies the member. No other industry enjoys this level of access and influence).
It's just another rip-off of the public coffers, conveniently disguised as a means of providing opportunities to ordinary people.
DeleteSteve O'Ban, a Republican state senator, is behind this. He graduated from the now-defunct University of Puget Sound Law School (known as UPS Law, which lends new meaning to the tagline, 'What can brown do for you?"). The proposed worthless law school will occupy the same building where UPS Law was.
ReplyDeleteHere's some key quotes from O'Ban:
“You’d hope they come to Tacoma to go to law school and stay there and practice there."
O’Ban, a lawyer who graduated from UPS law in Tacoma, said restoring a law school could attract high-caliber attorneys to the area.
Link: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/02/24/3496598/law-school-rebirth-in-tacoma-gets.html
High caliber? Tacoma law school? Where do these people come from?
This useless school will doubtlessly impoverish thousands of graduates, lie and mislead about jobs like every other law school, and destroy countless lives while enriching the dean, professors, and staff. Disgusting and reprehensible that $400,000 was pissed away to start funding this. Who thought a law school was a good idea? Also, I'd be interested to know how much money O'Ban was paid to support this endeavor.
May be an attempt to attract a couple million a year in federal loan funds for his district. May just be a vanity project from a guy who is mad that nobody recognizes his law school anymore. Either way, someone's gotta pay.
DeleteThis is nothing but some good old-fashioned pork. Soooo-eeeeeyyyy!
DeleteIt won't impoverish thousands of graduates. Indiana Tech Law School opened last year with only 28 students. If (and that's a very big mother-fucking if) it can retain them all and maintain that rate, it will not produce its thousandth graduate until 2051.
DeleteThere is a line in that article where they say something like not having a law school there ruins the "social fabric." I would pay someone $10 to say that to my face, looking me in the eye, and without laughing.
ReplyDeleteMy friend and I were considering law school in 1998 and 1999, so I remember UPS very well. I still have the US News ratings issues from those years.
ReplyDeleteThe story mentioned that they're going to use the old UPS law school building for the new law program. What? You mean it's been vacant for the last 15 years? And are they going to rent it or buy it from UPS? That could be the big financial motive we're looking for.
Let's see...UWash in Tacoma, Drexel in Philadelphia, John Marshall in Atlanta, and what's new in LA?
ReplyDelete