Blog Archives for February 2012

The growing chorus of concern over the rapid growth of student debt is being heard in the hushed and hallowed halls of Congress and at some of our nation's foremost educational institutions.

In Congress, where the move for reform has recently been incremental, the latest concern is that the interest rates on subsidized Stafford student loans will double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent on July 1.

In response, Rep. Joe Courtney, a Democrat from Connecticut, and Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island have introduced legislation in the House and the Senate to prevent interest rates on these student loans from doubling this year and to permanently cap Stafford student loan interest rates at a reasonable and consistent 3.4 percent for low-and moderate-income students.

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.