'I Consider Law School A Waste Of My Life And An Extraordinary Waste Of Money'

Business Insider has been in touch with a 28-year-old lawyer who has deep regrets about his decision to go to law school. He agreed to answer questions about the burdens of law school debt, and about what he'd do differently if he could.

This law school graduate's answers are sobering. He attended a school that's one of the top 20 in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report, and yet he struggled to find decent work.

He believes his law school tricked him into thinking he'd easily find a prestigious job after graduation.

"I consider law school a waste of my life and an extraordinary waste of money. I feel like I was duped and tricked," he says. "At the end of the day, it's my own fault for being a sucker and I learned an extremely hard lesson."

These days, he makes $45,000 and has $200,000 in education debt. He lives with his parents in Virginia, doesn't have a car, and doesn't even date. In his free time, he does contract work to try to pay down his debt.

We're published all of his answers, which include insights into when law school might actually be a viable option. He asked that we not use his real name.

Why did you decide to go to law school?

Because I wanted to be a lawyer. I also wanted greater career opportunities than my BA offered me. I believed the legal education industry's sales pitch circa 2007-08 that lawyers will always be in demand and that bankruptcy will be a hot practice area when the economy is poor.

What kind of job were you hoping to get?

Optimal outcome would have been an associate position with a large firm making $160,000. I knew I only had a 20% chance of landing that position, so I thought a realistic outcome was at a mid-sized firm making less than the large law firm salary but still a respectable amount.

What kind of job did you end up getting?

I kicked around miserable small law firms for two years. My first job was at a small law firm where the owner ran through associates like tissue paper. He stole from paychecks, screamed, yelled, etc. I quit after a short while. In my next job, I worked for another small firm but this time I had to start as an "intern" even though I was a fully licensed attorney. This meant I had to work for free for three months. I did it in the hopes that this would lead to a decently paid associate position. After three months, my boss offered me $1,000 per month. I was desperate so I did it.

I have a top-20 law degree and I was making the equivalent of a $12,000/year salary. McDonald's managers - nay, workers - were my economic superiors by a long stretch. After 3 months getting paid $1,000/month, I got a raise to the paltry sum of $2,000. It was insulting considering the boss hired several other attorneys and paid them peanuts as well. There's such an enormous oversupply of law school graduates so he was and is able to continue this practice. Eventually I moved onto another law firm where I am now. I don't get much responsibility and there's no upward mobility potential at my current job, but I'm happy just to have an office to myself, a boss who isn't insane, health care, and some vacation time (!). I had all of these things before I foolishly went to law school.

Education and Skill development Industry: A joint venture of public and private players

Skills and knowledge are the driving force of economic growth and social development for any country. Indian demographic is with the unique facet of being fraught with a majority of young populace. Education sector in India is well developed and mature. The nation's educational infrastructure offers a concrete system comprising of Primary education, Secondary education and Higher education. The constitution of India has made education a fundamental right provisioning free and compulsory education for children between 5 to 14.

Education and Skill development becomes quite an imperative sector to appropriate this massive human resource. The supply of public education is inefficient and leaves a significant shortfall which is being filled by private education institutions. The working age group between 15 to 59 years is its largest bulk constituting of more than 65% of total population. In such a backdrop, 29% of children are enrolled in private schools. In higher education sector, private institutions, colleges and universities are playing a pivotal role in the education landscape.

Potentially the target group for skill development comprises of all those in the labour force, including those entering the labour market for the first time. The current capacity of the skill development programs is 3.1 million. India has target of skilling 500 people by 2022.According to a survey 2 percent of the country’s workforce is skilled which is much lower when compared to the developing nations; there is a dual challenge of developing skills and utilizing them in a proper way.

Education and Skill development sector constitutes of Industrial Training, Professional courses and vocational education apart from School and higher education. Skill development is associated more to the context of industry oriented training that fetch immediate employment and earning. In India, education and skill development sector is structured under two independent ministries.

The Ministry of Human Resource and Development is associated with conventional education system. Primary Education, Secondary Education, Higher Secondary and Higher education sector is regulated by this ministry. Industry oriented training and education is supervised by the Ministry of Labor and Employment. Industrial Training Institute and other vocational education programs are maintained under the ambit of this ministry. Additionally, a number of commissions and agencies such as AICTE, UGC are dedicated for higher education in the country.

About 1.3 million schools operate in India where over 227 million students are enrolled. The figure indicates the state of regular enrolment in primary and secondary education levels. Side by side, vocational education courses is also operated under the National Institute for Open Schooling. According to surveys, total number of government higher educational institutions in India is 20, 769. It includes Universities, Research Institutions, Colleges for Arts, Science and Commerce, Engineering and Architecture and Medical institutes, Polytechnic institutes and Teacher’s Training Institutes.

In contrast, the private sector has a much larger role in the education scenario of the country. Apart from primary education sector, private colleges, universities and institutes are contributing substantially to higher education. Industrial Training Institutes and Industrial Training Centers are the primary faculties for Vocational Training. 6,906 such institutes and centers are operating across the country imparting industrial training courses to about 9.53 lakhs students.

The government has to put massive effort to form better educational structure especially for skill development sector comprising of industry-oriented training. A number of special initiatives are rolled by Government. The National Skill Policy, among others, devised in 2009 set a target to impart skill development training to 500 million by 2022. An apex institution for devising policy and review Skill development sector is the Prime Minister’s National Council on Skill Development. Initiatives were also taken to coordinate both private and public sector to impart skill development.

National Skill Development Coordination Board, NSDC is setup on a PPP model. It is a juxtaposition of public sector and private entities. The board formulates policies and programs on National Skill Development under the ambit of Prime Minister’s Council. It also evaluates and monitors the outcomes of such programs. The agency planned to establish 1500 new ITIs and 5000 skill development centers. The NVEQF, National Vocational Education Qualification Framework will be formed for an integrated Skill development infrastructure. This framework is for affiliations and accreditation of vocational education and training systems.

Initiatives for skill development should be oriented towards both catering the demand and creating the demand. Skill development is strongly related to the market and industry. Efficient skill development programs will add value across wide sections of workers creating rich human resource. The need of skill development for employability is across every section of the workforce. From operators and technician level workers to highly skilled labor comprising of college graduates needs an effective platform for skill development. The initiatives by government are massive; however, the extent to which they operate is inadequate to bring effective progress to the lackadaisical nature of current scenario. This calls in for pervasive initiative by private entities through collaborated as well as independent works. Contributions by companies such as Everonn and Educomp in vocational training sector are noteworthy. Devising a modular structure for imparting skill development is an effective approach for progress in this direction.

There is massive scope of development in Education sector of India. Although a number of institutes are successful to be among top 100 in global ranking, deficiency is quite apparent. India should focus on a holistic approach to hone the human resource of the nation, by implementing better solutions to reach out to thousands of villages in rural landscape. Leveraging private sector is beneficial since a competitive sense to provide service is inductive in this domain. This helps in propagating effective and innovative ways to educate the deprived section bringing in more effectual as well as pervasive national development.

Factors Related to Effective Education of Students With Learning Disabilities

Factors Related to Effective Education of Students With Learning Disabilities

As early as 1982, the NJCLD took the position that “providing appropriate education for individuals must be the principle concept on which all educational programs and services are developed.” The NJCLD reaffirms its commitment to and support for the following:

• The education, social, and emotional needs of the individual, the types of disabilities, and the degree of severity should determine the design and delivery of educational programs and services.
• A continuum of education placements, including the regular education classroom, must be available to all students with learning disabilities and must be flexible enough to meet their changing needs.
• Specialized instructional strategies, materials, and appropriate accommodations must be provided as needed.
• Because the educational, social, and emotional needs of students with learning disabilities change over time, systematic and ongoing review of the student's progress and needs is essential to make appropriate adjustments in current educational programs and related services.
• Because learning depends on the quality of the programs and services provided, systematic and ongoing evaluation of programs and their effectiveness in producing desired long-term outcomes is essential.
• Due to the chronic nature of learning disabilities and the changes that occur across the life span of the individual, coordinated educational and vocational planning are required. Therefore, provisions must be made to facilitate transitions that occur at all major junctures in the student's education.
• Social acceptance has a significant impact upon self-esteem of students with learning disabilities. Social acceptance of these students requires the sensitivity of the entire school community.
• To ensure effective mainstreaming of students with learning disabilities, the building principle must set the tone for a positive and accepting learning environment for all children.