South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Hong Joon-pyo earlier this week declared that his province would only provide free school lunches to students from low-income families, putting an end to the current free-for-all school meals.
The resulting savings, totaling 64.3 billion won, would be used to give education vouchers worth 500,000 won to some 100,000 low-income families to be used to pay for school materials and other education-related activities.
The announcement is a follow up to Hong’s pledge last November that he would end universal free school lunches and use the savings for targeted welfare services. With the elimination of the provincial, city and municipal funding which, combined, subsidized 60 percent of the budget required to provide free lunches to the province’s 285,000 students, the South Gyeongsang Province Office of Education will now be able to provide free lunches to 66,000 students from qualifying low-income families. Although the liberal education superintendent balked at Hong’s announcement of an end to school lunch subsidies, the South Gyeongsang Province Office of Education sent notices to families that universal free school lunches would not be available starting next month.
The universal free school lunch program has become a contentious political issue in recent years. Ever since the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education superintendent was voted into office in 2009 on the popularity of his election pledge to provide free school lunches to all students, the program has spread nationwide. Opposition to the popular program cost former Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon his position in 2011. Hong deserves credit for his stalwart position on ending wasteful universal welfare programs in favor of selective welfare programs that provide much-needed assistance those who actually need them.
One of the popular arguments that was used by the proponents of universal free school lunches was that having only poor students receive free meals brought them shame and stigmatized them in the eyes of their teachers and classmates. However, as shown by the case of Ulsan, which has not adopted the universal free school lunch program, lunch subsidy payments can be made in such a way that students do not know who is getting free lunches.
With the spread of universal free school lunch programs across the country, the number of students getting free lunches has risen from 1.38 million, or 19 percent of all students, in 2010 to 4.45 million, or 69 percent of all students, in 2013. Needless to say, offices of education have depleted their finances and are forced to cut other programs. For example, the total budget for school maintenance and improvements, essential for the safety of our children, has shrunk to some 883 billion won this year, compared to approximately 1.46 trillion won in 2011.
Universal free school lunches are just part of the snowballing welfare spending that is not sustainable. The central government and local governments are at loggerheads over who pays how much for the universal free school lunch programs and universal free child care programs.
Meanwhile, the Park Geun-hye administration continues to insist that providing broad universal welfare services without tax hikes is an achievable goal. If the administration is unwilling to raise taxes, then it should consider restructuring the current welfare programs. Hong has set an example by allocating limited resources to where they are needed and where they will do more good.
