Calculation system to reflect school-age population decline; funds to be reinvested in higher and lifelong education

Reduced volatility from domestic tax linkage to improve fiscal predictability for education offices

Minister of Planning and Budget Park Hong-keun said Thursday that the total amount of local education fiscal grants would not fall below previous years' levels as the government moves to overhaul the grant system.

Park drew a line against concerns over cuts to education funding, writing on X (formerly Twitter) that the reform "is absolutely not intended to slash funding for elementary and secondary education."

Minister of Planning and Budget Park Hong-keun [Yonhap]
Minister of Planning and Budget Park Hong-keun [Yonhap]

He said the intent of the reform was to "redirect limited resources to where they are most urgently needed and can be used most effectively, because the classrooms and the country our children will inhabit tomorrow will not look the same as today."

The Ministry of Planning and Budget and the Ministry of Education are currently discussing revisions to the formula linking the grants to domestic tax revenue. The grants serve as the primary funding source for provincial and metropolitan education offices, drawing on 20.79 percent of domestic tax revenue along with a portion of the education tax collected from national taxes.

Calls to revise the current linkage formula — in place since 1972 — have grown louder as the grant pool has continued to expand even as the school-age population declines.

Park also laid out the five principles guiding the government's reform. "The government's resolve to strengthen public education for our children will not waver in the slightest," he said, pledging to pursue the principles consistently.

First, he emphasized that "taking full account of the long-term upward trend of the past, the overall budget for elementary and secondary education will increase every year without being reduced or constrained." He added that per-student grant allocations would also rise annually, saying the government would "steadily expand the scope of educational benefits each year so that not a single child is left behind."

In addition, Park said the government would maintain the stability of elementary and secondary education funding while also expanding support for higher education, lifelong learning and early childhood education.

"The volatility of the education grants has been large depending on domestic tax conditions, making it difficult for education offices and schools to draw up their budgets," Park said. "Going forward, we will ease such sharp swings and guarantee predictable, stable operations."

He added that the government would "reinvest broadly in areas that have long been in desperate need of funding — university education, lifelong learning and early childhood education — contributing to an overall improvement of education in South Korea."

The remarks signal the government's intention to reform the existing structure, which restricts education grants to elementary and secondary education, and to broaden the scope of eligible spending.

Park also reaffirmed the government's position that the declining school-age population would be factored into the grant calculation formula. "We will naturally incorporate into the grant criteria the demographic shift of a society with fewer children," he said.

"This reform does not stop at strengthening elementary, middle and high school classrooms," Park said. "It will serve as a solid stepping stone that seamlessly connects the path of learning — from kindergarten and daycare, through the classroom, all the way to the university lecture hall and into the heart of society."


y2k@heraldcorp.com