NY Times on law school accreditation - Tamanaha is skeptical

Brian Tamanaha looks behind the last in the recent Times series on law schools.  It treat Duncan Law School as a victim of a rigid ABA accreditation process which obstructs the school's effort s to provide lawyers to serve the impoverished Appalachian region. The school was struggling with decliing enrollment and was already on notice that it was not likely to pass muster. - GWC

Balkinization:

by Brian Tamanaha

"The theme of the final installment of the New York Times series on law schools, "For Law Schools, A Price to Play the A.B.A.'s Way," was that ABA accreditation is to blame for high tuition. The story revolved around the effort of Duncan School of Law to obtain provisional A.B.A. accreditation. In the article, Duncan administrators and the main benefactor complained that accreditation regulations were "massive, just massive." Without these requirements, they claimed, "Duncan could have cut its tuition in half, maybe by two-thirds."

The article gave the clear impression that Duncan was awaiting a final decision on whether it would receive accreditation without any foreknowledge of its likely fate."

'via Blog this'