Political Foundation of Educational Policy : the Generational Effects on Public Education Spending in South Korea (2020. 05)

• Author :  Dong-Hun Kim,  Changwoong Yoon, Taegyun Lim  임태균
• Journal : Korean Journal of Political Science
• Publisher : Korean Political Science Society
• Volume : 28(2)
• Publication Date : May 2020
• DOI: 10.34221/KJPS.2020.28.2.9

Abstract : The paper examines public attitudes on the public educational policies in South Korea. Since 2000, the generational conflict became the most salient political cleavage in South Korea affecting not only elections but also various public policies. Building on the previous studies identifying strong generational effects on political attitudes, this study investigates the generational effects on public education policies, focusing on the millennial generation. Based on public opinion survey conducted in 2019, this paper finds that, in particular, the millennial generation in South Korea opposes the affirmative action policies and less likely to vote for the political parties that increase the public education spending. South Korea spends almost 12% of GDP on education but public education spending is only about 4% of GDP. Given the high level of private education spending, the educational policies became highly contentious issues that not only pertain to the equal opportunity problem but also to the high level of economic inequality in South Korea. Despite the fact that public education spending is an important tool to reduce economic inequality and educational inequality, this paper cautiously predict that political foundation of expanding the public spending on education will be weakened in the future due to the negative attitudes of millennial generations on public education spending.