Free tuition at Harvard University’s law school is a “matter of justice” to an activist group at the school.
Reclaim Harvard Law School, “a movement of hundreds [of] students and staff,” centers around a call “for racial equality in education.” In December, the group submitted a list of demands to address “subordination based on race, gender, and class” and a lack of administrative transparency, among other issues.
Their newest push is to unburden students of the financial costs of a law degree.
“The mission statement of this school is, ‘to educate leaders who contribute to the advancement of justice and the well-being of society.’ Yet the enormous amount of debt that students must undertake in order to attend HLS is a direct obstacle to this mission. As a matter of justice, education should be free,” the group wrote.
The group isn’t wrong about enormous debt levels, though it’s irrelevant to an extent. Income is correlated with education level. Though law students, like medical students, take out large loans, their high incomes that follow for the average graduate make the investment worthwhile, economically speaking. For Harvard students who graduated in 2013, starting salary was $160,000. Of 578 graduates, 556 were employed, according to Forbes. Accepting risk by pursuing a law degree at one of the most well-respected educational institutions in the world has a strong economic return.
“The effects of HLS’ astronomical tuition fees are racially biased. Due to the legacy of centuries of white supremacy and plunder, people of color are less likely to have amassed wealth in the United States … How can Harvard Law graduates be expected to advance justice or the well-being of society when they are forced to make career decisions based on paying off this burdensome debt?” the group asks.
Again, the group isn’t factually wrong. However, Harvard graduates do quite well. They were not forced to enroll in Harvard Law. With the dramatic decline in law school applications, any student accepted into Harvard could have pursued their degree at a much less expensive college if they desired.
Colleges could do more to improve the graduation rates of their minority students. Harvard is a strange target, though, given their exceedingly high graduation rates at all levels. The idea that free college is a matter of justice, however, doesn’t hold. For free tuition to be an issue of justice implies Harvard has illegitimately withheld something from students, or defrauded them. Its unjust history involving slavery deserves more redress than a footnote in the form of a plaque, but a broad abolition of tuition makes little sense.
