It seems incongruous that in a period when America’s security is under attack and our principles of democracy, freedom and justice are being challenged around the world, we have to ask: Are we willing to pay for justice?

For this question even to be raised in the world’s wealthiest nation and its citadel of democracy seems out of place. And yet the sad truth is that in hundreds of communities throughout the United States, local prosecutors—the people’s attorneys—cannot afford to hire or retain top quality assistants.

Even sadder is the fact that hundreds of young lawyers who want to be prosecutors or public defenders cannot afford to do so. The cost of getting married, having a family or buying a home is almost impossible when they are saddled with the debt of their law school education.

This situation was documented several months ago by a shocking report. According to a survey by the Partnership for Public Service and the National Association for Law Placement, two-thirds of law students would not consider a job in government service, including prosecution, because the salaries are too low to pay their law school debts. Fifty percent of law students have incurred more than $75,000 in debt, with one in five students facing more than $105,000 in debt, making well-paying jobs in law firms more attractive than working as an assistant DA, no matter how much the law student would prefer the latter.

One respondent who expressed a preference for a career in prosecution or public interest law, described his dilemma and the nub of the problem in candid terms. “I wouldn’t be able to pay back my loans (with such jobs) and I’d wind up on welfare,” he said, adding, “ I’d love to (work in public service), but I don’t think I can repay my loans this way.”

An ABA report in 2000 described the problem just as bluntly, declaring, “Law school debt has exploded. A typical student graduates with more than $90,000 in debt, often requiring a 10-year amortization of at least $1,000 a month. Reports indicate that this new economic reality is driving graduates away from government, public service and legal service positions because they don’t offer salaries large enough for young lawyers to sustain themselves, never mind a family.”

There is a solution in addition to higher salaries. It is loan forgiveness.

There are loan forgiveness programs for police officers, teachers, physicians, nurses, dentists, dental hygienists and certain other health care and child care providers, and while several states have limited versions of loan forgiveness programs for prosecutors, there is at present no universal federal loan forgiveness program for them.

NDAA has been working on this issue on a high priority basis for several years, and it has been a long and often frustrating uphill effort. It began in 1999, when then-association President John Justice sought clarification of the language in the federal Perkins and Stafford Loan Programs as to whether they would include local prosecutors among those eligible for loan forgiveness. Later, NDAA and the American Bar Association held joint discussions on the inclusion of both prosecutors and public defenders in federal loan forgiveness programs.

More recently, as the result of NDAA efforts, language including prosecutors as well as public defenders in federal loan forgiveness programs has been included in a number of bills, and then, for varying reasons, or for no stated reason, the language has been stricken from the bills, or the bills themselves have died in committee. This is not unusual; in fact it is typical of the way the legislative process often works in Washington. But because this particular issue affects prosecutors and the justice system, we are especially concerned.

The problem won’t go away and neither will NDAA’s determination to see a comprehensive loan forgiveness program for prosecutors enacted by Congress. President Dan Alsobrooks has made it a top priority in his agenda.

As the great theologian/philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr said, in part: “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible…”

An essential ingredient of making justice possible in a democracy is the practical act of attracting the best lawyers to prosecution and retaining them. Certainly loan forgiveness, along with higher salaries, would go a long way toward achieving this goal.

NDAA will be unrelenting in its efforts to convert the goal into reality.