#MakeTheCase With Your Members of Congress Using AccessLex State-Based Data Sheets

Each year, the policy team at AccessLex Institute creates state data sheets to support your legal education advocacy across the country. Our academic year 2022-23 data sheets are updated and ready to help you #MakeTheCase!

The data sheets provide information on graduate and professional students by state. They capture graduate and law student fall enrollment and degrees awarded using data from the National Center for Education Statistics and the American Bar Association. They also offer information on federal student aid by graduate loan program (e.g., Unsubsidized Stafford, Grad PLUS) using data from the Office of Federal Student Aid. These figures include the total federal Direct Loan dollars disbursed, the number of recipients, and the average federal Direct Loan amount for loan recipients.

Our data sheets are a helpful resource for students, school administrators, and policymakers to learn more about graduate and professional enrollment and borrowing in their state. The data sheets offer information you can share with elected policymakers or Members of Congress to advocate for protecting programs that encourage higher education access and affordability.

To further assist you in your advocacy, we offer additional #MakeTheCase resources and tools in our Action Center:

• Advocacy Toolkit – Find tools you can use to successfully engage your Members of Congress. This resource includes fact sheets on our main priorities for increasing access and affordability, tips for effective advocacy, and phone and email scripts for when you contact your Members of Congress.
• News Room – Find news on what is happening at AccessLex and in legal education. The News Room also includes our Higher Education Policy Roundup. Posted every Friday, the Roundup includes updates on what is happening in Washington while spotlighting new legislation recently introduced in the House and Senate and news stories that can support your advocacy.
• Policy Positions – Find information on federal policy issues you can use in your advocacy. Our policy positions and papers include topics such as the Higher Education Act, bankruptcy, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

Whether you want to impact policies locally, build them as a catalyst for national change, or both, engagement with policymakers is critical to improving access, affordability, and value in graduate and professional education. Make your voice heard!