Idea switch? A Tuition Rate Change

After some soul-searching, fasting, praying, etc., I've decided to switch my topic, if I may. I've been thinking lately about rising costs of tuition for grad schools, especially law school. Here's some statistics:

• In 1985, the average law school tuition, per year, was $7,526. Adjusting for inflation, that would be about $16,294 today. Instead, the cost of tuition on average is $41,985 per year. That means the average lawyer graduates with $125,955 lighter pockets, not including books (another $4,000) or cost of living. (see lawschooltransparency.com)
• While tuition has gone up, chances of landing a full-time job with a decent salary out of law school have gone down. At BYU Law, for example, less than 50 percent of students can expect a job offer right out of law school. Nationally, job offers average about $49,000 per year in the public sector and $84,000 per year in the private sector (according to the US News & World Report).

These statistics illuminate a problem within the legal field: law is a "noble profession" whose job is to serve, according to Bruce C. Hafen, yet lawyers have less time to perform that service because they spend more time paying off student loans now than ever before. In 1908, the American Bar Association established a code of ethics that included pro bono work, or service to the community without pay. Today, the ABA recommends at least 50 hours per year of a lawyer's job to be devoted to pro bono work, but most firms fall short of that goal. I argue a change for lower tuition rates in exchange for more hours of service to the community--government subsidized service hours, even. We'll see how this thought progresses.