Brian Leiter's Law School Reports quotes a dean on the collection of law school expenditure data by US Newsdespite the ABA's decision to discontinue collecting this information:
I thought you'd be interested to know that law school deansthis week were informed that the US News law schools survey is now open for lawschools to submit their data. Lookingat the data entry form, Questions 91-102 regarding expenditures are exactly thesame as last year. That is, US News hasdecided to continue to collect expenditure information and use such informationin its rankings of law schools. Thisdespite the many cogent criticisms over many years of the use of this factor inthe rankings; the fact that the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissionsto the Bar, as reported in July 2013, no longer requires law schools to submitthis information annually (and therefore that independent check on what lawschools report to US News no longer exists, thereby increasing the incentivefor law schools to manipulate their data in reporting to US News); and the factthat the Draft Report of the ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Educationcriticizes the continued use of such information in the rankings (p. 9 of theReport, Section B.3) and under its Specific Recommendations (Section VIII., p.32, Section G.3) calls for US News to stop doing so.
While the decision to rank schools according to how muchthey spend has always been corrosive, perverse, and misleading, it isparticularly disturbing to see US News continue to do so in light of the aboveand in light of the urgent need for law schools to hold down costs and limitexpenditures in order to minimize student debt. US News' decision to continue doing so isinexplicable and inexcusable and I sincerely hope that deans, journalists, andthe ABA will specifically and loudly call upon US News to explain its decisionand work to educate prospective students and the legal community at large aboutthis issue.
The fullpost is here.