[Mobile Vulgus]

What a hypocrite, indeed. Whines about the "poor" while helping the rich!

[reg45]

A better way to get a pool of talented young lawyers into public service would be to require them to serve three years of duty as public defenders and/or prosecutors. This would occur after passing the bar exam but prior to being admitted to the bar. It would be not unlike the internship and residency performed by physicians.

[kitkat]

If you want to succeed in politics, working as a prosecutor for a few years after college is one way to make an impression on the voters. It was the ONLY job Kerry had, and I doubt that he was overburdened with his work as some prosecutors are. It looks to me as though Turbin in sucking up to future Dems in congress. Just my thinking on this matter.

[Lokibob]

If you look at the payment as a $10,000 a year retainer fee in tthe public defenders office, it looks a lot better.

If I were a newley graduated lawyer (and I'm not even a lawyer) I would want to get out there and get the big bucks to pay off my debt. You can't do that in the public defenders office.

Look at it another way.... The government is paying kids fresh out of high school $60,000 to enlist in the Army for 3 years. Granted, the lawyers have already graduated from college, but both the high school graduate and the lawyer are being incentivized to go into public service.

I don't know, but digging deeper into this subject, it is not as shocking as it seems.

However, this thread is enough for a lawyer joke:

What is the difference between a lawyer and a catfish?

One is a bottom feeding scum sucker.....The other is a fish.

[DH]

Hell! I thought the government gave the lawyers a gift when they passed the ADA. You know, the gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving.......

[The Brush]

I collect on those student loans. Most lawyers never pay and once they become self-employed there's not a thing the government can do...
Of course they could suspend their license to practice law, but then we'd need lawyers to write that law so it will never happen.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

Probably cheaper for the taxpayers than than paying the salaries to allow prosecutors of the same quality to pay off the loans.

[stylin19a]

and that's opposed to this from 2003:

Republican members of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce today introduced two important bills that will help America’s public schools recruit and retain highly qualified teachers, particularly in special education. The new bills – a proposal by Rep. Ric Keller (R-FL) to reduce the paperwork burden on special education teachers, and a proposal by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) dramatically expand student loan forgiveness for math, science, and special education teachers who serve in disadvantaged schools – come amid reports showing too many teachers are leaving their profession, and noting a lack of support for highly qualified teachers, particularly in special education."