Private kindergartens threaten shutdown if law revised
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Members of the Korean Kindergarten Association hold a rally at Gwanghwamu Square in central Seoul, Thursday, to protest the government and the National Assembly’s move to revise laws to strengthen regulations on private kindergarten operations. / Yonhap
Preschool operators claim revision bills infringe on private assets
By Kim Jae-heun
Private kindergarten owners from across the country have protested the government and the National Assembly's moves to pass revision bills aimed at enhancing their transparency, saying all private preschools would have to close down in the event of the bills' passage.
Thousands of members of the Korea Kindergarten Association (KKA) gathered at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, Thursday, protesting the bills the Assembly's Education Committee plans to pass early next month.
The three bills were submitted after the disclosure of widespread corruption among private kindergarten owners, including accounting fraud and budget misappropriation.
Under the bills, private kindergartens will have to adopt a state-run accounting system for public institutes, while the founders of the kindergartens will be prohibited from serving as principals. Private kindergartens will also have to outsource children's meal services to operators only certified by the institution's operation council.
The KKA said it agrees with the purpose of the three revisions but the government did not invite it to take part in the revision process.
“We oppose the bills as they exclude us. The government has to recognize founders' individual assets,” Lee Deok-sun, an official of the KKA, said during the rally. “The three bills do not solve the main issue and they only strengthen the punishment of kindergarten operators and criminalize them. They are unjust bills that do not recognize individual assets, which is the main idea of a liberal democracy.”
Lee said if the government pushes through the three bills, kindergarten operators across the country will have no choice but to shut down their facilities.
He also urged the government to provide private preschools with the same financial support as public ones.
“If the government is going to keep arguing that kindergartens are also schools, it has to pay teachers' salaries like it does for elementary, middle and high schools,” Lee said. “If the government says private kindergartens are not needed, we'll close and leave. But if they are needed, it should pay them fees because the operators' private assets are used for child education which is a public service.”
According to the KKA, around 150,000 people joined the protest, while police said only 3,000 people were present at the scene.
Some of the protesters were parents because the KKA had reportedly requested each member kindergarten bring two parents to rally.
A 37-year-old mother surnamed Lee said her son's kindergarten had asked her to join the protest to prevent the kindergarten from closing down.
The KKA also collected signatures on the spot to urge President Moon Jae-in to provide direct subsidies to parents of preschoolers. The petition required both parent and children's names.
Meanwhile, a civic group named Political Moms held a press conference just behind the KKA's rally to demand faster movement to pass the revision bill.
“We don't have much time as the Assembly's regular session is almost at its end,” a member of the group said under the condition of anonymity.