Half-price tuition

By Jay Kim

American colleges give full tuition exemption to academically excellent students from poor households. They not only pay tuition, but they also give stipends for room and board as well. Many Korean students have attended prestigious U.S. colleges in the past and the present with full scholarships.

When I came to the U.S., though my grades were not good because I had to attend school during the day and work at night, I also received a tuition exemption because I was from an economically struggling country.

Funds for tuition exemption and scholarships are appropriated by each school every year. In the U.S., each school makes a decision on the matter of tuition, with Congress not having anything to do with the matter.

However, in Korea the issue of college tuition has remained highly controversial. Nobody would oppose the idea of cutting college tuition in half; I agree with the idea as well. It is especially good news to many parents who have suffered from the continuous raising of college tuition.

The problem is deciding who will pay for the other half of the fees. Though many politicians talk about supporting the idea of halving tuition, they avoid discussing who will pay for that other half. The majority party’s announcement of a “half-price tuition” policy with no preparation stirred up students who had previously been quiet on the issue.

The announcement was probably made on a political calculation that they should move first in the belief that the minority parties would bring it up anyway.

Though the majority party leaders made this hasty announcement, it was the leaders of the minority party that have been participating in the students’ street protests. This led to a compromise where each side agreed on cutting tuition in half; but they were criticizing each other for using the half price tuition issue as a populist maneuver to gain the trust of younger voters.

In the U.S., Congress would specify how to pay for a plan as costly as half-price tuition, since none can be introduced without a clear funding source, no matter how great the program might be.

Even a welfare program that is desperately needed but requires deficit funding may have trouble passing through Congress, since the Republicans usually oppose it first and try to seek a compromise, and might convince a few Democrats to join them.

The Korean National Assembly should have examined how to pay for a plan which will cost several trillion won before putting it on the floor, including holding hearings. Some high ranking Assembly members insisted that the government should pay for the plan; however, it is the job of the National Assembly, where the budget is decided, to find a way to get this kind of money.

In the end, the only solution seems to be raising taxes. Whenever a tax issue comes up in the U.S., taxpayers always ask “who pays, who benefits?” We should ask that same question here. The parents of college students would agree to the plan because they are beneficiaries but single people and young couples without a child or with children in elementary schools would ask “who pays for it, and who gets the benefit?” when learning that their taxes would go to paying half of Korea’s college tuitions.

They would say “I have a hard time paying for private tutoring fees for my child who is attending elementary school. Why should I pay half of college tuition for other peoples’ children? Why shouldn’t they study hard to get college scholarships? I think fees for cram schools my child attends should also be cut by half.” They believe that since college education is not mandatory, taxpayers should not be responsible for it.

It is true that college tuition has become ridiculously expensive. It seems that the right order of business is to close some substandard colleges and supplement tuition with the money that each college seems to have in trust funds such as those used for the construction of new buildings.

While doing this, they should also be cautious in their budgets for college students next year. It would also be desirable to hold public hearings to hear the opinions of citizens and experts. It is not fair to simply decide to pay the cost of half-price tuition with taxpayers’ hard earned money.

Jay Kim is a former U.S. congressman. He serves as chairman of the Washington Korean-American Forum. For more information, visit Kim’s website at www.jayckim.com.