Gyeonggi Office of Education to Self-Fund 'School Meal Labor Costs'... Impact of Local Government Revenue Shortfall

Im Tae-hee, Superintendent of Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, is serving food onto a tray for a meal at a school meal site.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education has decided to fully cover the labor costs of school meal expenses, considering the financial situations of the 31 cities and counties within the province.

The Office announced on the 21st that from 2025 to 2026, for two years, it will exclude the labor cost portion from the shared expenses of school meal costs?which include food costs, operating costs, and labor costs?relieving the basic local governments from contributing to labor costs.

The school meal expense support program is a welfare policy initiated in 2010 to promote the healthy physical and mental development of growing students and to reduce the financial burden on parents. Based on relevant laws, the burden of school meal expenses paid by guardians has been shared among the Office of Education, Gyeonggi Provincial Government, and the 31 basic local governments at mutually agreed ratios.

However, recently, some basic local governments have continuously requested a reduction in their share of the school meal expenses due to financial deterioration caused by tax revenue shortages. In response, the Office of Education empathized with the need to alleviate the financial burden on these local governments and decided to carefully review the direction of adjusting the sharing ratios to ensure sustainable school meal expense sharing.

Nonetheless, since the additional budget adjustment to be borne by the Office exceeds 113 billion KRW, considering financial conditions, the adjustment will be phased in over two years from 2025 to 2026.

Lim Tae-hee, Superintendent of Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, stated, "Like the basic local governments, the Office also faces financial burdens due to tax revenue shortages, but this decision is essential for the healthy growth of students. We will continue to strengthen mutual cooperation with the basic local governments to actively ensure stable meal support for students in Gyeonggi Province."

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