Get Out of (Some) Debt Free Card

Two Yale law profs, Akhil Reed Amar and Ian Ayres, are suggesting that law schools offer to pay half of loan debts incurred if students decide to quit law school after receiving their grades at the end of their first year.

A half-tuition rebate splits the loss of an aborted legal career between the school and the student. Each has skin in the game, so students will not go to law school lightly, and law schools will have better incentives not to admit students likely to fail.

For more, see Amar and Ayres' Paying Students To Quit Law School on Slate.

Interesting idea but wouldn't a rebate program increase tuition for the rest of the admitted students? To cover potential costs, law schools would have to hedge their bets based on some sort of forecast of the expected number of students who would take the rebate offer each year, assuming, of course, law schools would not stack the deck by gaming first year grading. [JH]