Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education: "Majority Opinion Against Executing Preliminary Budget for Nuri Curriculum Expenses"

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education announced on the 21st that legal consultation results indicate that the kindergarten Nuri Curriculum budget of the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, which was reduced during the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly's deliberation process, cannot be executed as a preliminary budget.

The Provincial Office of Education inquired whether the early childhood education program support expenses (kindergarten early childhood tuition) reduced during the assembly deliberation among Nuri Curriculum expenses qualified as a preliminary budget execution target. As a result, 8 out of 11 consulting lawyers stated that "it is not subject to expenditure obligations and cannot be executed as it was reduced during assembly deliberation," the office explained.

The remaining 3 lawyers responded that "it is subject to expenditure obligations and can be executed."

Article 131 of the Local Autonomy Act stipulates that "if a budget bill is not passed by the start of a fiscal year, the head of a local government can execute expenses for purposes such as 'fulfilling statutory or ordinance-based expenditure obligations' in accordance with the previous year's budget (preliminary budget)."

Education and childcare curriculum expenses (Nuri Curriculum expenses) are also included in the mandatory expenditure scope of Article 39 of the Enforcement Decree of the Local Finance Act, which the government amended in October of last year.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Education is requesting that the Provincial Office of Education pay kindergarten Nuri Curriculum expenses, viewing Nuri Curriculum expenses as mandatory expenditure items in the preliminary budget.

In response to the Provincial Office of Education's consultation request, Lawyer A judged that "the Enforcement Decree of the Local Finance Act is interpreted as a violation of law and does not fall within the scope of mandatory expenditure."

Lawyer B stated that "even in cases where there is a statutory expenditure obligation under the Local Autonomy Act, it cannot be necessarily said that it must be executed through a preliminary budget," and explained that "in the case of kindergartens, it falls under mandatory expenditure under the Early Childhood Education Act and can be executed through a preliminary budget; however, since the entire amount was reduced by the provincial assembly and budget approval cannot be guaranteed, it cannot be said to be illegal even if not executed through a preliminary budget."

Lawyer C responded that "considering comprehensively that budget approval and compilation cannot be realistically expected after the assembly's budget reduction, and that forcefully executing within limited budgets could result in serious side effects in other administrative areas, it is difficult to view the non-execution of the reduced kindergarten Nuri Curriculum expenses as illegal conduct."

On the other hand, Lawyer D stated that "both kindergartens and childcare centers can be viewed as educational institutions in a broad sense," and "under the Local Finance Act and the Enforcement Decree of the Early Childhood Education Act, Nuri Curriculum expenses fall under mandatory expenditure targets, and before the enforcement decree receives a court ruling of invalidity, the executing agency has no grounds to preemptively determine it invalid and refuse execution," considering it as a mandatory preliminary budget execution target.

The Provincial Office of Education included only the kindergarten portion (approximately 198,000 students; 510 billion won including meal expenses) in the budget proposal submitted to the provincial assembly and did not reflect the childcare center portion (approximately 156,000 students; 545.9 billion won).

The Provincial Assembly's Education Committee and the Budget and Settlement Special Committee further reduced the kindergarten budget, and subsequently faced a preliminary budget crisis without holding a plenary session.