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Brooklyn Law School Plans To Cut Tuition By 15 Percent

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) --The cost of an education seems like it's rising by the minute, but one law school in New York City is lowering tuition.

Brooklyn Law School plans to cut tuition by 15 percent to $45,850 a year, starting next fall. It currently is nearly $54,000.

Brooklyn Law School Dean Nicholas Allard said prospective students are terrified of taking on enormous debt.

Brooklyn Law School Plans To Cut Tuition By 15 Percent

"There's too few people in America who can either afford to go to law school or who can afford a lawyer," Allard told 1010 WINS. "The skyrocketing tuitions at law schools are what's keeping many people who are well-qualified from entering law school and they're also contributing directly to the high cost of legal services for newly-minted lawyers."

The private institution's applications have declined since before the recession. He didn't provide numbers. The school currently has about 1,200 students.

Across the country, applications are down 12 percent and 2012 had the smallest group of new law students in almost 40 years, the Law School Admissions Council said.

Allard told WCBS 880's Alex Silverman that reducing tuition "was a no-brainer, but implementing it was difficult."

The school has taken a number of cost-cutting measures to enable the tuition cut, including the reduction of some staff salaries and donations and sales of real estate, Allard said.

"It's good business and it's a matter of justice," Allard said. "This is a step which is part of a continuing process and package that we're offering. I wish it could be more, I wish it could be sooner, but this is what we can do now."

Job prospects are also a student concern. Of 478 Brooklyn Law graduates in 2013 about 88 percent are currently working, the Wall Street Journal reported. That rate is lower than at some other city law schools.

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