Constitutional court hears opinions on revised private school law

The year-long debate over a controversial revision to the private school law is likely to heat the nation again ahead of a planned Constitutional Court ruling on the matter.

The court had its first open hearing on the case for almost two hours on Thursday, with all of the eight sitting justices of the court attending.

The reform law requires private schools to appoint outside auditors to help oversee their finances and other managerial affairs. It was approved by parliament a year ago amid fierce opposition from religious and conservative forces, including the Grand National Party (GNP).

Supporters said the law would help curtail corruption involving private schools and make for more transparent management.

But religious groups and private school owners challenged the constitutionality of the law, arguing that it violates free market principles that guarantee private ownership of property. They also say school operations will suffer from the intervention of hard-line unionized teachers if they are picked widely as outside auditors.

At stake during the hearing were nine articles of the law, including ones allowing outsiders to fill one-quarter of a school board and another banning relatives of school owners from becoming board members.

Lee Seog-yeon, a lawyer for the claimants, say the outside-auditor system would fundamentally undermine the cause for private schools and violate free market principles by treating private schools as public schools.

"Private schools are neither private assets of the founder, nor society's public property," Lee said. "The essence of the matter is that they belong to private school foundations and thus should be managed without intervention from the state based on the principle of autonomy. This fact cannot be changed even though the schools receive government subsidies."

He said the legislation runs counter to diversity and specialization among private schools, and was designed to implant a common educational ideology by specific political forces at schools.

Lawyers for the government said the reform bill will contribute to educational development by enhancing managerial transparency at private schools. Citing government tallies showing that about 98 percent of the budgets of private middle and high schools in South Korea comes from state subsidies and parents, they said the state has the right to control the nation's educational system, at least on a limited basis.

"We cannot deny the public nature of education and the state's constitutional right to establish and control the educational system, even though private schools established with private money might have autonomy in management," said Kawk Tae-hwan, one of the attorneys.

"The law does not violate the private ownership of property," he went on. "Because the influence of outside auditors who occupy only one-quarter of a school board in decision-making procedures will be minor."

"But they will be able to fully adopt the role of monitoring improper decisions, if there are any," the lawyer stressed.

The court is expected to decide on the issue in February or March after holding one more open hearing.

Outside the court compound were about 100 opponents chanting slogans such as, "No private school law!" and "Private school law is unconstitutional."

The activists from three groups, including the Christian Council of Korea, which represents 73 elementary, middle and high schools across the country, threatened to shut down schools unless parliament revises the law again, in a news conference in front of the court's main gate.

Seoul, Dec. 14 (Yonhap News)