Loans and Lattes

The Washington Post is concerned about massive law student debts which are apparently being driven by . . . $3 lattes?  (Link via Christine).  According to the Post, a latte habit can add up to $4000 over the course of law school.  Yowza!  But wait . . . don't law students regularly graduate with $100,000 or more in student debt?

I haven't run the numbers myself, but I kind of suspect that high tuition (regularly between $25,000 and $30,000 at private schools, and not all that cheap at public schools) and skyrocketing rents (a result of the recent real estate bubble bull market) probably contribute more than Starbucks towards law student debt.  (See also Althouse).

Hey - here's an article idea for the Post:  Maybe instead of focusing on the money gained from making homemade coffee versus storebought coffee, the article should focus on school-taught legal education versus homemade legal education!  Students could save a bundle.  Law school meets homeschooling.  Perhaps this is the next great trend in legal education.

(Full disclosure:  I'm a Mormon, so I don't drink coffee.  So I saved even more than you homemade coffe drinkers!  No coffee at all for me -- a $4000 gain (if I did the math right).  Ha, ha, neener neener.  But wait --Mormons also have to tithe.  And on a lawyer's income, the cost of tithing definitely outweighs my measly $4000 gain from not drinking coffee.  Rats!  I'm still in the red.)