Education Grant Reform Could Cut Gyeongbuk Funding by 2 Trillion Won... Lim Jongshik: "Quality Should Not Suffer Due to Small Student Numbers"

The Gyeongbuk Office of Education (Superintendent Jongshik Lim) expressed concerns on September 4 regarding the government's 2027 budget proposal, which is based on the premise of reforming the national education grant system and has passed the Cabinet meeting to be submitted to the National Assembly. The Office warned that this could weaken the stable financial foundation for early childhood, primary, and secondary education.

The stance of the Gyeongbuk Office of Education is that if the government changes the local education grant formula from the current system, which is linked to domestic tax revenue, to one that allocates funds based on current growth rates and the declining school-age population, it would be difficult to fully reflect the diverse financial needs of educational sites, which cannot be explained solely by student numbers.

Jongsik Lim, Superintendent of Gyeongbuk Office of Education

The current local education grant system is a framework that supports the stable operation of early childhood, primary, and secondary education by allocating a certain percentage of domestic tax revenue and part of the education tax. These grants serve as a key financial source, supporting the entire landscape of school education, from curriculum operations and improving aging school facilities to guaranteeing basic academic skills, student care, afterschool programs, educational welfare, and establishing AI and digital educational environments.

In Gyeongbuk, schools are spread across a large area and many regions are experiencing population decline, making it difficult for a decrease in student numbers to directly translate into reduced educational expenditures. More than 38% of the schools are small, with 60 or fewer students, so substantial financial resources are required even to maintain basic educational conditions, such as operating school buses, providing meals, managing school facilities, and securing teachers and educational staff.

According to the 2027 government budget proposal announced by the Ministry of Strategy and Budget, if the current statutory share of 20.79% is applied to 529 trillion won in domestic tax revenue, the education grant would be calculated at about 110 trillion won. However, the government's revised proposal, which applies the new calculation method, sets this figure at 78.9 trillion won.

As a result, education grants nationwide are expected to decrease by about 31 trillion won, and in the case of the Gyeongbuk Office of Education, it is expected to experience a reduction of grants in the amount of about 2 trillion won.

Additionally, from next year, there is an anticipated decrease of 66 billion won in the education tax portion of national taxes and 88 billion won in the local education tax portion of tobacco consumption taxes. Starting from 2028, there will also be a reduction of 38.8 billion won in central and municipal government support for free high school education. These factors are expected to further increase the burden on local education finances.

The government's proposed education grant of 78.9 trillion won for 2027 represents a 2.5 trillion won increase (approximately 3.2%) over this year's actual grant figure, including the supplementary budgets, which is 76.4 trillion won. However, according to the Gyeongbuk Office of Education, this growth rate is lower than the 3.9% scheduled raise for civil servants next year and falls short of covering rising personnel expenses, inflation, and the growing demand for educational environment improvements.

The Ministry of Education maintains that some of the funds resulting from the grant system reform can be allocated to the “Talent and Education Account” within the National Future Response Fund and may still be used for early childhood, primary, and secondary education.

However, the Gyeongbuk Office of Education analyzed that, based on the 2027 government budget, there would be no surplus funds to transfer to this fund, meaning there are effectively no resources available for such deposits.

Furthermore, even if resources are deposited into the “Talent and Education Account” of the National Future Response Fund, because the operating authority would shift from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Strategy and Budget, the Office believes there would be limitations in stably addressing local educational demands in early childhood, primary, and secondary education across different regions.

The Gyeongbuk Office of Education asserts that to ensure stable early childhood, primary, and secondary education, the basic framework of linking the grant to domestic tax revenue and maintaining the statutory allocation rate should be preserved. It insists on revisiting system reform only after sufficiently collecting input from education sites and reaching broad social consensus.

The Office plans to engage and cooperate with the National Council of Education Superintendents, local assemblies, education and staff associations, parent organizations, and local communities. It also intends to actively respond during National Assembly deliberations on related bills and the government budget to ensure that the realities of local education are fully reflected.

Superintendent Jongshik Lim emphasized, "The quality of education should never be compromised due to a small student population. We must reliably guarantee the necessary educational conditions to protect the learning rights of students in agricultural, fishing, remote, and island regions and prevent the widening of regional educational disparities. Stable financial resources for education are a basic precondition for ensuring fair educational opportunities for all students. We will unite the voices from the education field and respond actively to ensure that the foundation of the current tax-linked allocation system and statutory rate remain unshaken."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.