We recently commented on Joe Robach’s election-year PR move, getting taxpayer money to help start up a law school at St. John Fisher, a local private school.  We’re not the only ones who see it as an inefficient use of taxpayer money.  The head of SUNY Buffalo feels the same way:

…some New York officials are pushing for creating new law schools. But the head of the State University of New York’s only law school isn’t among them.

“There’s no question that we simply have a glut of law schools,” said Makau Mutua, interim dean of the University at Buffalo Law School. “There’s no shortage of access to legal education for New Yorkers who want to go to law school.”

He also makes the good point that NY State isn’t even funding our own SUNY-based law schools adequately, so what are we doing funding a private school?

Mutua said the state hasn’t done enough to support UB’s law school and doesn’t need to spend taxpayer dollars studying whether to establish more state-run law schools, let alone one that would be affiliated with a private college.

“It’s mind-boggling for the state to contemplate giving money to start up a private law school,” said Mutua, a UB law faculty member for nearly a dozen years before being named interim dean in December.

The state would be better off investing in UB to hire more faculty members and recruit students for its law school, where about 800 students must share a 35-year-old building with undergraduates, Mutua said.

“We need a completely new building,” he said. “We’re squeezed for space.”

And guess what? Even the state Bar Association doesn’t think a new law school is necessary:

Building more law schools isn’t on the state Bar Association’s to-do list. A spokeswoman for the organization said its legal education and admission committee hasn’t been called on to study whether New York needs more law schools.

“I have no idea why the state would consider three more law schools,” said Thomas Guernsey, dean of Albany Law School. “There’s no evidence in the job market that we need more than those 15 schools.”

No idea?  Ooh–Dean Guernsey– call on me, I have an idea or two.  How about: Are endangered Senate incumbents in the 3 districts where these schools are being considered?

This looks more and more like business as usual for the NY Senate– using taxpayer-filled slush funds to buy PR for Senate incumbents in an election year.

Spend our money responsibly on infrastructure and things the state actually needs, please.