For those who haven't kept up with the state of law school tuition in Ohio, the NLJ reports that four schools there – Toledo, Ohio Northern, Akron and Cincinnati – have sliced tuition in some fashion over the past year. Two weeks ago, Toledo (a public school) cut tuition for Ohioans and Michiganders from $20,578 to $17,900. A year ago, Akron (another public) announced it would give all out-of-staters the same tuition as in-staters. Ohio Northern (a private school) just cut tuition from $33,700 to $24,800. And in June, Cincinnati (a public school) chopped out-of-state tuition by 30%, to $29K.
I imagine that the other Ohio law schools are also chopping effective tuition, but they're being less transparent and doing it on a case-by-case basis. The real question is whether these four schools will reduce their scholarship outlays to pay for these cuts – or whether scholarships will continue, and the schools will cut other expenses.
It would be a mistake to see this as a purely Ohio story. Many of these schools compete with other non-Ohio schools – particularly in Michigan, Kentucky, Western Pennsylvania, Indiana, and West Virginia – and the reductions in out-of-state tuitions are designed to expand the applicant and student base of these schools.
It is worth noting, for those who complain about federal subsidies of law school in the form of Income Based Repayment, that we appear to be seeing significant front-end state subsidies here by Ohio taxpayers. Perhaps critics see this as preferable, if only because they are immediate and transparent (and thus easily subject to reversal by voters.)
Prior tuition war posts:
Philadelphia here and here
Kansas
This is not surprising. With the exception of Ohio State, every law school in Ohio has to make some pretty drastic changes to stay afloat…