Lee Taegyu "Delay in Passage of Teacher Protection Bill Due to Internal Issues in the Opposition"

Lee Taegyu People Power Party Lawmaker MBC Radio Interview
"Repeatedly Requested to Vote... Opposition Did Not Cooperate"

Lee Tae-gyu, a member of the People Power Party, stated that although the bill to protect teachers' rights was originally scheduled to be processed at the full meeting of the National Assembly's Education Committee on the 4th, the bill's processing has been delayed because the opposition party has not cooperated due to internal circumstances.

On the 11th, Lee appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' and said, "We accepted the opposition party's request to postpone, so we did not process it on September 4th, but didn't we hold the bill subcommittee again last Thursday (7th)?" He added, "However, there were no additional agreements at that time, and we repeatedly requested cooperation to approve the contents already decided in the bill subcommittee last Friday (8th) or today, but the Democratic Party is not cooperating."

Chairman Kim Young-ho (right) is talking with Lee Tae-gyu, a member of the People Power Party, at the Education Committee's Subcommittee on Bill Review held at the National Assembly on the morning of the 7th to review the Teacher's Authority Improvement Act and other bills. Photo by Yonhap News

Lee explained, "Currently, for the September plenary session processing, the Education Committee needs to promptly approve the previously agreed contents at the full meeting and send them to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, but the attitude shown by the Democratic Party is not like that." He continued, "Originally, we held the bill subcommittee three times on August 17th, 23rd, and 31st, and approved most of the key matters for protecting teachers' rights."

He added, "So, the ruling and opposition parties agreed to approve these decided matters at the full meeting on September 4th, the 49th memorial day of teachers at Seo-i Elementary School," and "This was also repeatedly confirmed at the four-party consultative body of the ruling party, opposition party, government, and education superintendent on September 1st."

Lee said, "(The Democratic Party) wants to have additional discussions, but our party's consistent argument is that the already agreed and approved matters should be approved first and sent to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee for review, and the remaining parts should continue to be discussed." He criticized, "Since the Education Committee is processing quickly, the Legislation and Judiciary Committee will also hurry."

The People Power Party and the Democratic Party also show differences regarding the clause that requires recording acts of teacher rights violations in the student records. The Democratic Party opposes it, arguing that lawsuits by parents to avoid such records will increase, while the People Power Party believes it has a preventive effect on teacher rights violations.

Regarding this, Lee said, "They keep talking about lawsuits, but school violence lawsuits are already handled by the education support office, not the school or teachers," and "The ratio of lawsuits to disciplinary cases is actually less than 1%."

Regarding another issue, the establishment of the Child Abuse Case Judgment Committee, he stated that the clause to upgrade the school teachers' rights protection committee to the education support office level has already been approved, and "It is considered unnecessary in terms of practical promptness."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.