A good story on the front page of the Houston Chronicle

I've been off the net for a while I know. I've never gone a week with one posting but this has been a crazy seven days. Trying to finish up my class, house work, Blue Knights and three really bad nights. Tuesday morning in the jail I had to handle an irate idiot who threatened me and the arresting officer three times. So I get to file retaliation on him. Next night I had to deal with a drunk who decided to go nuts, kick me in the face and knee one of my jailers. Oh well, assault of an officer. Fortunately the following night I had to supervise housing, I figure that is safe and my goal, I told everyone, was to make it through a shift without having to file charges. I did make that goal. As far as the others...

We had a prisoner who was covered in his own feces and we was walked up to one of my housing floors. He was supposed to take a shower. What does he decide to do...put more on him and spread it all over the day room. Thanks. Had to talk him to the outside and hose him down. It's is at times like this I ask "I went to college for what?"

So enjoying a leisurely Sunday morning with Beth, Elmer and Bugs. Bugs is still kinda out of it after his surgery yesterday but his appetite is back. And I get this good news on the front page of the Houston Chronicle.

Texas law schools getting undercut on tuition

Texans can now get a cheaper law degree in Arizona than in Houston. Or in Austin. Or at just about any law school in Texas, at least based on the sticker price.

Across the country, law schools, which have long enjoyed a wealth of students, are competing more fiercely than ever for a shrinking pool of applicants — just two-thirds the size it was four years ago and set to narrow another 8 percent this year...

And the author says (or should I say writes) this like it's bad news. America, with only 5 percent of the world's population, produces over 80 percent of the planets lawyers. Like we don't have enough.

This is interesting:

...“The number of applications are down, so the competition for students is up and schools are doing what they can to recruit the best students, to make law school as affordable as they can,” said Richard Alderman, the interim dean at the University of Houston Law Center, which added more than $1 million in scholarships this year.

In one of the latest moves, the University of Arizona’s law school cut tuition for the second time in two years. The school in April slashed out-of-state tuition by 25 percent to $29,000 — about $800 less than the UH Law Center’s in-state price, and more than $4,000 less than Texas students would pay to attend the law school at the University of Texas in Austin, one of the state’s biggest and most prestigious.

Pennsylvania State University recently launched a grant program that gives all Pennsylvania residents admitted $20,000 a year, effectively cutting tuition in half. Other schools, such as Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, have reduced tuition by more than 15 percent.

But that’s just the sticker price. UH and UT have added scholarships to remain competitive. This year, UH’s law school increased its scholarship budget by more than 30 percent, Alderman said. UT is also spending substantially more on scholarships, said UT Law Dean Ward Farnsworth, though he could not say by how much.

You mean if you cut the demand for something it forces the cost lower. No wonder the education-government complex likes to push everyone into a "you must go into college" mindset. Artificially generate a demand and it will support higher prices.

Maybe if we looked at this in medical cost.....no, let's not go there.