21 Education Groups Oppose Cuts to Education Grants, Citing Growing Challenges Despite Declining Student Numbers

Three major teacher organizations and various education-related civic groups have voiced their collective opposition to the government's plan to reform the local education finance grant system.

Twenty-one education-related organizations, including the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations, the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, and the Teachers' Union Federation, held a joint press conference in front of the Cheong Wa Dae Sarangchae to demand a halt to the reduction of education grants.

The groups urged the government to immediately stop discussions on cutting education funding, arguing that challenges in the field, such as the need to resolve overcrowded classrooms, are continuing to increase.

They further pointed out that education grants are a system designed to ensure the stable operation of public education regardless of changes in administration or economic conditions, and that reducing education funding based on a decline in the number of students is a notion that undermines the public nature of education.

"The government's push to discuss reducing local education finance grants is not merely a 'budget diet,'" said Park Young-hwan, head of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, during the press conference. "It is a reckless challenge that ignores reality."

Do Seung-sook, senior vice president of the National Association of Parents for True Education, also argued, "The method of reducing elementary and secondary education budgets to use as funding for universities is a policy that weakens public education while leaving the burden on parents unchanged."

Education grants, which serve as the core funding for local offices of education across the country, are formed by allocating 20.79% of the total internal tax revenue and a portion of the education tax from national taxes.

While the Ministry of Planning and Budget maintains that the structure linked to internal tax revenue should be changed to reflect the decline in the school-age population, the Ministry of Education is opposing this, insisting that the current linkage rate must be maintained.

(Photo courtesy of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.