Are Free School Meals Populist Idea?
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Ahead of the June 2 local elections, the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) is pushing for a plan to expand free school meals to all primary and secondary students.
Senior lawmakers of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) called the initiative a populist idea, Thursday, saying that education authorities should not spend taxpayers' money to provide free meals to children born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
DP legislators claimed there are some deserving children who are not beneficiaries of the free school meal program under the current scheme.
Their parents are so poor that they cannot even finance their children's lunch at school so they have to skip meals, they said.
In response, GNP Chairman Chung Mong-joon warned of the consequences of the DP-driven plan.
``We need to keep in mind that the biggest threat to free democracy is neither socialism nor authoritarianism. It is populism,'' Chung stressed during a meeting of the party's decision-making Supreme Council.
He called on his fellow GNP lawmakers to map out an effective public relations strategy to convince the public that the DP-led plan is flawed.
Currently, 25 percent of primary and secondary students living in rural areas are entitled to free school meals.
The government plans to allow all of these students (approximately 960,000) to receive free lunches at school by 2012.
In addition, the education authorities plan to give free school meals to a limited number of eligible children living in urban areas.
By 2012, about 26 percent of school children in the primary and secondary education system will be entitled to free lunches.
The rate falls far short of that of the United States (50 percent) and that of Britain (34 percent). But the ratio of school children who can access free school meals here is much higher than that of Japan (1.7 percent).
Parents of primary school students pay 34,000 won per month for school meals, and 50,000 won for secondary students.
GNP legislators said the plan is reasonable, noting that allowing children from wealthy families to have free lunch at school is a waste of money.
They claimed that taxpayers' money could be used more wisely if education authorities use the money to improve school amenities, such as repairing broken heating systems or replacing old computers with new ones.
Meanwhile, DP legislators said the government's misguided policy priorities are the major stumbling block to expanding free school meals.
``The Lee Myung-bak administration cut taxes and this resulted in education budget cuts. Approximately 2.4 trillion won of local governments' education budget will be cut this year,'' Rep. Park Joo-sun said.
``Next year, the budget cut will be deeper than that.''
Park claimed that if the government had not sought tax cuts, it could set aside enough money for free school meals for all school children.
The plan to allow all primary and secondary school children access to free school meals became a major issue during the election to select the education superintendent of Gyeonggi Province last year.
Kim Sang-gon, the incumbent superintendent, won the race with a campaign pledge to let all school children eat free lunch at school.
As the local elections approach, the opposition DP has now chosen free school meals as a major campaign pledge.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is scheduled to unveil the limited free school meals plan next week.