Cheong Wa Dae says President Lee proposed inter-ministry debate on education grants

Cheong Wa Dae said Monday that President Lee Jae Myung personally proposed holding a public debate on the local education finance grant system, which automatically allocates 20.79 percent of domestic tax revenue to provincial and city education offices.

"The Ministry of Planning and Budget and the Ministry of Education are preparing a public forum on the use of education finance grants generated by additional tax revenue," a Cheong Wa Dae official said, adding that the president had suggested the forum.

Lee proposed the open debate format at a Cabinet meeting on June 30 after the two ministries continued to clash over the education grant system.

In response, the two ministries will hold a one-hour debate titled "The Need to Reform the Education Finance Grant System" at the Government Seoul Complex on July 8 at 10:30 a.m. The forum will be broadcast live on KTV and each ministry's YouTube channel.

At the heart of the dispute is whether to maintain the current system, which ties grant allocations to domestic tax revenue. The Ministry of Planning and Budget argues the arrangement is inefficient because grants keep growing with rising tax revenue even as the student population rapidly declines. The Ministry of Education counters that the link to domestic tax revenue is a safeguard for fiscal stability in education, and that changing the system would undermine that stability.

The gap between the two ministries has widened particularly because a semiconductor boom this year is expected to generate a large windfall in additional tax revenue. Lee took the unusual step of calling for a public debate, and the two ministries are expected to use the live-streamed forum to gauge public opinion and work toward a common position.