Equal Justice Works Blog

Law School Transparency (LST) is a nonprofit legal education policy organization. Its mission is to improve consumer information and usher in reforms to the current law school model. This week, the Student Loan Ranger (SLR) is interviewing Patrick Lynch, its cofounder and policy director.

Lynch is a licensed New York attorney with a J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School in Tennessee and a B.A. in Economics and English Literature from Fairfield University in Connecticut. He splits his time working for LST and providing policy support for environmental nongovernmental organizations in southern Chile.

Your Student Loan Ranger was intrigued by a recent report from the Center for American Progress titled "What Can We Learn from Law School? Legal Education Reflects Issues Found in All of Higher Education." In a nutshell, the report argues that the failure of schools, students, and policymakers to respond as the cost of getting a degree climbs and the chances of getting a job that pays well enough to justify that level of debt diminishes is not unique to legal education. It is the highly visible tip of a growing iceberg of student debt that threatens all of higher education.

Many students enter law school with high hopes of engaging in social justice work, indigent legal representation, and other forms of service to the public.  In due course, many of these public-interest minded law students are jolted by the reality that the forgotten signature on the promissory note has transformed into an increasing mountain of debt.  The pressure to repay these loans results in a race to secure high-paying jobs with large law firms.  Where the noble goals such as the defense of civil liberties or legal services for the poor can wait; collection agents won’t, or so the thinking goes.

The Department of Education is currently hosting negotiated rulemaking proceedings for higher education to implement President Obama’s student loan proposals introduced in October 2011 as well as to discuss issues and concerns about the accessibility of federal student aid and educational debt. The goal of these sessions is to create proposed regulations to govern student aid availability, repayment, forgiveness and relief.

Today, denying someone the right to vote and racial segregation are viewed as social injustices. But, before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Acts Right of 1965 were passed, systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans was common practice. These landmark legislations, which improved the quality of life for African Americans by creating more job opportunities, limiting racial restrictions on public venues[i] and ensuring their right to vote, were ushered in by the Civil Rights Movement.

On Monday, January 16, America will celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who once asked, “Life’s most persistent and urging question is this: what are you doing for others?” Each year, in honor of MLK Day, thousands of Americans commemorate his legacy by serving across the nation. This has been marked as the MLK Day of Service, an initiative to bring people together to provide solutions to life’s most pressing problems.

In last week's blog post we mentioned (not for the last time) how important it is to max out federal loans before taking out private loans. We also promised to follow up on the Department of Education's recent report, "The Expansion of Private Loans in Postsecondary Education," which shows students are, unfortunately, not taking our advice. Because the Student Loan Ranger never forgets (okay, sometimes we forget, but not this time), we're doing just that.

The holiday season is a time when many of us, focusing on our own family and home, are also acutely aware of those who are homeless.  Many organizations run campaigns to help the homeless during the holiday season as they know the stories of individuals and families who are struggling will pull at our heartstrings.  But homelessness isn’t a seasonal crisis – it affects the lives of millions of people around the country and is worthy of our attention year round.