Many students begin law school with the dream of using their future careers to help others. But by the time they end their education, loans and debt leave few with the financial courage to bring that dream to fruition.
According to the American Bar Association (ABA), many of today's law graduates are faced with law school debt of $80,000 or more upon graduation, which leaves little opportunity for considering a job in public service.
"With the median starting public interest salary ranging from $36,000 in civil legal aid, to $40,000 for public defenders, to $44,000 for prosecutors, these mortgage -size debts bar most graduates from pursuing public service legal jobs," it says on the ABA Web site. "Among those graduates who do take such positions, many-when faced with major life decisions such as starting a family-are forced to leave after two or three years of employment."
Some law schools are creating Loan Repayment Programs or LRAPs, to help students feel financially confident enough when they graduate to take public service jobs. LRAPs are specifically designed to aid graduates who are employed by either nonprofit public interest organizations or government agencies. These programs, which differ by school, provide loan repayment or forgiveness, lower interest rates on loans, or postponed payment of law school loans to graduates entering law-related public service jobs.
But the LRAP isn't giving enough students the assistance they require. A 2005 survey by Equal Justice Works, an advocate for programs encouraging public service legal careers, found that only 18 of 100 law schools with LRAP programs were helping 20 or more graduates in public service jobs. And about half of the United States' law schools have no loan assistance program at all for graduates in public service.
A more cost effective program helping law students that desire public careers is the recently passed College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRRAA). This program, which was signed into law in 2007, caps monthly loan payment to a percentage of income for lawyers employed in public service, and forgives loans entirely if these lawyers can spend 10 years in the public sector.
In addition, CCRRAA increased funding for Federal Pell Grants - a federal loan that not have to be repaid and is awarded usually only to undergraduate students - by $11 billion. This can help future law school students, in that with Pell Grants they won't have to take out quite so many loans in the first place.
One obstacle to running an LRAP is cost. The program works best when run by large, well-endowed universities. For instance, the University of California, Berkley School of Law has a successful LRAP that is a forgivable loan program and is able to assist students who owe up to $90,000 in federal and private educational loans.
But LRAPs can make small schools struggle. Northeastern University School of Law has only $200,000 per year in loan assistance for all its students, which seems like a relatively insignificant amount when compared with need. But while this money isn't enough to run a successful LRAP, when combined with federal funding, it could be used very effectively.
"With the new federal legislation, we can get pretty close to addressing real need with $200,000 to $300,000 per year," said Emily Spieler, the dean of Northeastern University School of Law.
Even though the federal government passed CCRRAA, it's going to be up to the schools to follow through. Schools must encourage students to look beyond the dollars and cents and see the benefits of working in public service. They must let students know that the CCRRAA and college-based financial aid is out there to help them succeed, and to allow students to have meaningful careers that won't force them into particular careers on the basis of money alone.
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