Senator Asks ABA Questions About Scholarships and Debt

Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) has sent the American Bar Association President Stephen N. Zack a stinging letter asking 31 pointed questions about its accreditation process.  He specifically asks the ABA if it keeps statistics on the the number of merit scholarships that are revoked after the first year of law school, and how this figures into the ABA's accreditation process.  Oh, and what exactly is the background of the ABA committee members who make the decisions on law schools, and are they balanced between academics and professionals.  Here is the complete list of questions:

1. Does the American Bar Association compile data on the number of schools which offer scholarships to more students than can statistically retain those scholarships?

2. If so, how many schools, and how many total scholarships are affected?

3. Does the American Bar Association take these “bait and switch” allegations into account in the accreditation process?

4. If so, how?

5. If not, why not?

6. Does the American Bar Association maintain data on the dollar amount of merit based scholarships offered each year?

7. If not, does the American Bar Association plan to begin maintaining this information? 

8. Does the American Bar Association maintain data on the dollar amount of merit based scholarships that are revoked after the offeree‟s first year of law school?

9. If not, does the American Bar Association plan to begin maintaining this information?

10. Does the American Bar Association publish data on the amount of first-year merit based scholarships in comparison to the amount of non-first-year merit based scholarships?

11. Does the American Bar Association plan to begin maintaining this information?

12. Has the American Bar Association raised concerns with law schools about the practice of awarding more first-year merit based scholarships than they plan to renew?  

13. If so, how has the American Bar Association raised this concern?

14. Does the American Bar Association have any education programs that aid students in assessing whether or not they are borrowing more than they can reasonably expect to repay?

15. Does the American Bar Association have a program to ensure borrowers do not-default on their federally-backed student loans?

16. How many law schools has the American Bar Association provisionally accredited during the last 20 years?

17. Does the American Bar Association maintain this information in a publicly accessible database? 

18. How many law schools has the American Bar Association fully accredited during the last 20 years? 

19. Has the American Bar Association ever revoked provisional or full accreditation during the last 20 years? 

20. If so, how many law schools lost their provisional or full accreditation?

21. From 1990 to the present, has the American Bar Association ever placed a law school on probation? 

22. If so, which law schools were placed on probation? 

23. Did any of these law schools regain full accreditation?

24. If so, within what time period?

25. When examining candidates for membership on the accreditation committee, what efforts does the American Bar Association make to ensure that membership is balanced between legal practitioners and academics?

26. Does the American Bar Association track the professional background of its committee membership?

27. If so, how does the professional background of committee membership break down in percentage format on committees related to the accreditation of law schools?

28. If not, why doesn‟t the American Bar Association track the professional background of committee membership?

29. Does the American Bar Association track the professional background of the officers that approve or revoke provisional or full law school accreditation?

30. If so, how does the professional background of officers that approve or revoke provisional or full law school accreditation break down in percentage format?

31. If not, why doesn't the American Bar Association track the professional background of officers that approve or revoke provisional or full law school accreditation?

I've removed the footnotes from the letter.  There are 17 of them.  Grassley characterizes the ABA 's authority over law schools as "was barely granted renewed recognition by the U.S. Department of Education‟s accreditation experts." This is a reference to the 17 Department of Education regulations where the ABA was found to be out of compliance as well as the frustration of the Department's own committee with the ABA.  See Victoria Szymczak's post, An Intervention: ABA Violates 17 Department of Education Accreditation Regulations.

An article in the ABA Journal has a lawyerly response to the request from Zack:  "We all share the same goal: that the American people have access to justice through representation by good lawyers who have had all the information they need to carefully plan and pursue their legal careers."  Hulett "Bucky" Askew, the ABA Consultant on Legal Education, responded more specifically, state 9 of the 17 violations were due to changes in the regulations.  Doesn't anyone track those things at the ABA?  Maybe hire a lawyer?  Hey, there's a new law job.  The other violations he said will take more time, but will be corrected in the one year deadline.

Grassley asked for a response by July 25, 2011.  I hope he makes the ABA's answers public and that they aren't paternalistic babble.  [MG]

End Note: See also Who Ultimately is Master of the Domain? ABA Responds to Senator Boxer's Request for Information About What the ABA Is Doing to Improve Its Oversight of Reported Law School Placement Data. [JH]