Massachusetts One Step Closer to Having a Public Law School

A quick update on the possibility of a public law school in Massachusetts: the proposal passed 11-5 in the University of Massachusetts' Board of Trustees Committee on Academic and Student Affairs. A Mass. public law school is one more step closer! (In case you're learning about this for the first time, the Southern New England School of Law offered itself as a donation to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in October.)

Before a UMass Dartmouth law school can become reality, the proposal has to be passed by another university committee and the Board of Trustees before it reaches the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, which has the final call. If passed, students would matriculate to the new public law school in December 2010, paying $23,565 (for Mass. residents) and $31,209 (for out-of-staters), according to The Herald Tribune, which ran a piece about local Mass. delegates who support the proposal last week.

From the Boston Business Journal: "If approved, the public law school is expected to generate $673,576 for the Commonwealth in tuition revenue next year and more than $1 million annually within five years. The new school also would produce a university cumulative cash balance rising from $1.8 million in Fiscal Year 2011 to $10.2 million in Fiscal Year 2018." If the addition of the new school doesn't cost tax-payers anything--as its supporters say it will not--these numbers aren't too shabby.