Ministers of Planning and Budget and Education to Hold Public Debate on 'Education Grant Reform' on July 8

▲ Ministry of Education

The Ministry of Planning and Budget and the Ministry of Education will hold a public debate on the reform of local education finance grants at the Government Complex Seoul at 10:30 a.m. the day after tomorrow (July 8).

The debate, organized under the instruction of President Lee Jae-myung, will be attended by Minister of Planning and Budget Park Hong-keun, Minister of Education Choi Gyo-jin, and experts in the fields of finance and education. It will be broadcast live for one hour via KTV and the YouTube channels of each ministry.

Currently, the structure of education grants is set by law to automatically allocate 20.79% of the total internal tax revenue.

The Ministry of Planning and Budget maintains that reform is necessary, such as lowering the linkage rate to internal tax revenue, as the grants are tied to a fixed percentage and increase rigidly despite the rapid decline in the school-age population.

Minister of Education Choi Gyo-jin also recently stated that a rational reform of the grant system is inevitable.

On the other hand, the superintendents of 16 municipal and provincial offices of education across the country issued a joint statement last month, protesting that "unilateral reform based on economic logic will degrade the quality of public education, and the damage will fall on the students."

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