National Assembly Budget Office (Chief Cho Euysup) held the Grand Debate on the 2023 Educational Finance on Tuesday, November 15, at 2 pm on the third floor of the NABO building to gather opinions on the effective distribution of educational finance and the reform of the local education subsidy.

In his opening remarks, Chief Cho hoped this event would be an opportunity to share opinions on educational finance and local education subsidy and find an effective distribution method of the funds to nurture talents for the future.

Speaker Kim Jin-pyo shared his words of encouragement in which he mentioned different views on the reform, such as reinforcing tertiary/lifelong education and improving the quality of mandatory education. He hoped the debate to be a chance to muster wisdom for the reform and underscored the need for restoring the ladder of opportunity to enhance the competitiveness of public education and reduce polarization by preparing a long-term and non-partisan strategy for educational finance.

Professor Won Yoon Hee at the University of Seoul moderated the debate. Education Vice Minister Jang Sang-yoon and NABO’s Assistant Chief for Budget Analysis Choi Byongkwun gave keynote speeches. Professor Song Gi-chang, professor Ban Sang-jin, National Council of Governors of Education Secretary General Ham Young-gi, and Professor Nam Soo-kyong participated as panelists.

The first keynote speech was addressed by Vice Minister Jang under the title of “the Reorganization Plan of Tertiary Education Finance for the Innovation and Development of Universities.” He said that the decrease in population has weighed on universities’ financial balance and the existence of universities in rural areas and stressed the need for expanding the government investment in higher education by creating a special account on tertiary/lifelong education to overcome such problems, prepare for future society, and nurture talents. He further elaborated on the financial source of the special account and major investment directions.

Assistant Chief Choi delivered the second keynote address under the title of “the Current State of and Improvement Plans for Local Education Subsidy,” in which he suggested using the OECD’s Educational Finance Indicator to tackle the problem of how the subsidy size was calculated. The subsidy size is difficult to predict and its financial resource is not stable as it is indexed to the internal tax. Regarding the government’s plan to open a new special account to support tertiary/lifelong education, he pointed out that instead of limiting the expenditure area to higher education, the government needs to draw up reform plans that can resolve the partition problem between the primary/secondary education fund and the higher education fund.

The first panelist, Prof. Song of Sookmyung Women's University, agreed in large part with the education community's concerns about the government's new special account for tertiary/lifelong education, stating that it is necessary to supplement the government's reform plans to ensure the stability of local education subsidy and to address the community's concerns over a reduction in the subsidy.

The second panelist, Prof. Ban of Jeonbuk National University (Secretary General Ham delivered Prof. Ban's idea), stated that the size of the primary and secondary education finances is not sufficient and that the transfer of a portion of the local education subsidy to higher education alone has limitations in securing university competitiveness. Then he proposed several ways to improve educational finance.

The third panelist, Secretary General Ham criticized the finance authority's reform plan for the local education subsidy that it does not sufficiently reflect the educational and future-oriented perspective on educational finances. He added that to ensure the stability of the educational finances given the future education finance demand and rigid expenses, we need a rational reform plan such as legislation of a higher education subsidy law.

The fourth panelist, Prof. Nam of Kangwon National University, stressed the need to expand higher education finances to overcome the deterioration of higher education finances and the decline in competitiveness of universities and said that there is a need to reorganize the support system to secure stable higher education finances, starting with the introduction of the special account.

NABO wishes that the discussions made at the Grand Debate on the 2023 Educational Finance would become a reference when seeking the direction of the education finance reform, which aims to respond to future changes in education.