Councilor Junyeop Park: "Jeonnam-Gwangju Student Education Allowance Must Not Lead to 'Race to the Bottom'"

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Junyeop Park, a member of the Jeonnam Gwangju Integrated Special City Council (The Minjoo Party of Korea, Damyang 1), demanded at the Jeonnam Gwangju Integrated Special City Education Office's business briefing at the Jeonnam Office on July 15 that the integration of student education welfare allowances between Jeonnam and Gwangju should not lead to a "race to the bottom" due to budget issues.

According to Councilor Park, even before the launch of the integrated region, Jeonnam had been providing a "student education allowance" of 50,000 to 100,000 won per month for students from the third grade of elementary school to the second grade of middle school. In contrast, Gwangju operates the "Kkumdreami" voucher program, which provides support of 600,000 won for middle school students and 1 million won for high school students, showing significant differences between the two regions in terms of coverage, scale, and method of payment.

Junyeop Park, Member of the Jeonnam Gwangju Integrated Special City Council.

On this day, Councilor Park suggested expanding the scope of support through cooperation with local governments as an alternative. He stated, "In the case of Jindo County, students up to high school are benefiting from the student education allowance through active cooperation with the local government," and urged, "Other cities and counties should also closely communicate and negotiate budget sharing so that the allowance can be expanded to all students from elementary to high school."

He also called for resolving the inconvenience faced by students and parents due to usage restrictions. Park emphasized, "There are practical limitations in that the student education allowance card from Jeonnam and the Kkumdreami voucher card from Gwangju cannot be freely used in each other's regions," adding, "The barriers regarding affiliated merchants and areas of use must be eliminated as soon as possible so that students can fully benefit from the integration."

In response, Kim Jongman, Director of School-age Population Policy, stated, "We will explore ways to expand the scope of support within the given budget to ensure that there will be no reduction in welfare subsidies," and added, "We will proceed without delay in building an integrated operating system."

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