There was a story in the New York Times in 2016 about how law school students were graduating with high debt and low prospects. 

It used Valparaiso University’s School of Law as an example. 

Perhaps members of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission read that article before they voted Monday to deny the proposed transfer of Valparaiso University’s School of Law to Middle Tennessee State University's campus.

“We regret that the Tennessee Higher Education Commission did not approve our proposal to establish a college of law to provide the citizens of Middle Tennessee and surrounding areas an accredited, public law school,” said MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee.

Commissioners voted 8 to 5 to deny MTSU’s proposal. The governing boards of both MTSU and Valparaiso earlier this month had endorsed the transfer.

McPhee threw some shade in the university's official announcement.

“THEC’s decision denies a legal education to Nashville-area students financially unable to attend an expensive, nearby accredited private institution or unable to relocate to a public institution hundreds of miles away in Knoxville or Memphis,” McPhee said.

“We thank our friends at Valparaiso for their generous offer to transfer its School of Law, which would have represented a significant multi-million dollar gift to the state of Tennessee,” he said. “And we are sorry that our citizens will be deprived of the opportunities that this college of law would have provided because of concerns about competition by the state’s two existing public law schools.”

It ended with "Middle Tennessee residents are farther from an accredited, public law school than residents of any other of the 50 largest metro areas in the United States. MTSU’s proposal would have created the only public accredited law school in serving the Nashville metro area, the seventh-fastest growing region in the nation."

Murfreesboro residents can, however, attend the Nashville School of Law, which has been good enough for many of our local judges and the attorneys practicing in Rutherford County. 

So they aren't without options.