Chapter 45 Fifty-three days of the "Private Schools Act" debate

In December 2005, the Education Committee of the National Assembly, the Grand National Party and the ruling party proposed different amendments to the Private School Act, and they had several days of negotiations. The private school legal dispute has actually been going on for two years.The ruling party believes that private school consortia have serious corruption, so it advocates that more than two-thirds of private school board members should be open-minded.Although the ruling party claims this, in fact, it is the Grand National Party’s amendment to the private school law that can strictly monitor corruption in private schools.The revision of the private school law proposed by the Grand National Party requires the disclosure of all board meeting minutes, introduction of public auditors, disclosure of accounting, and transparency of budgets and settlements.Moreover, we advocate that private school consortiums calculate the budget and settlement of private schools based on the disclosure of even a piece of chalk, and record this requirement in the clauses.However, the ruling party only focuses on open directors to participate in council affairs.

To become an advanced country, talents must be cultivated, so schools should be competitive.In order to cultivate the competitiveness of the school, the most important thing is the diversity and self-discipline of the school. It is difficult to achieve creative education under the regulations of the system. In fact, as long as the laws and regulations are followed, the private school law before the revision is enough to strictly prevent corruption, and there will be no corruption.However, the education authorities did not follow the regulations, leading to corruption incidents in some private schools.Private schools are groups that are prone to corruption, but it would be too exaggerated for outsiders to go in and monitor them.To use an analogy, it is like catching mosquitoes but using a rabbit trap. It seems very appropriate to use this metaphor to describe it.

In the era when there were few decent schools in the past, most of the schools built with their own money to train talents were sound private schools. Why are they corrupt now?It is really difficult to understand with common sense, so we can only think that groups with specific ideas have infiltrated the council and then disrupted school education arbitrarily. The ruling party began to call the Grand National Party a "supporter of corruption in private schools," and private schools as corrupt vested interests.The ruling party itself is like an apostle who comes to judge others to be guilty, wielding a sword and dividing the public and private schools into two different sides.

On December 9, 2005, the ruling party forced through the private school law.Tensions have hung over Congress since morning.At around four o'clock in the afternoon, 20 to 30 minutes before the start of the meeting, the venue would open as usual, but this day broke the routine, and only a dozen members of the ruling party entered the venue first.When these members of the ruling party sneaked in, the members of the Grand National Party wanted to enter but were refused.The congressmen of the Grand National Party resisted vigorously, but the door of the venue was not opened until most of the ruling party congressmen entered the venue.Members walking towards the chairman's table in front of the Congress were actually physically attacked by members of the Liberal KMT.In an instant, the venue was filled with scenes of members pushing each other.When the venue was in chaos, the Speaker of the National Assembly entered the venue under the escort of guards.Under the leadership of the Speaker of the National Assembly, the private school law was quickly enforced.The Grand National Party lawmakers tried their best to prevent the ruling party lawmakers from voting, but they were unable to do so.In just fifteen minutes, the kidnapping of the private school law has been completed, and the proposal explanation and discussion have not even been carried out.The members of the Grand National Party were at a loss for a moment.

What is the private school law?This regulation will affect our children's future and future education, won't it? Lawmakers from the Grand National Party protested on the spot.At 7:30 in the evening, we gathered on the central stairs connected to the venue, and I stood in front with a firm heart and delivered "Talk to the Nation".I announced: "We will stand with all parents in this land against the private school law." This is the first time that the GNP has staged a sideline protest in the 17th Congress.Since the start of the 17th National Congress in June 2004, the Grand National Party has insisted on not conducting sideline protests, despite being criticized by some as "unlike an opposition party".During the 16th Congress, the ruling party had numerous off-court protests, but in the 17th Congress until the private school law incident, we have never had any off-court protests.Although there are many crisis moments, we all believe that we should not go to the Congress to demonstrate, and we should have a heated debate inside the Congress, because we don't want to disturb the people with things other than people's livelihood.Even the opposition protests abolished by the National Security Law of 2004, we did not step outside the Congress.

However, the ruling party suddenly passed the private school law in a mandatory way, and we immediately stepped onto the road of sideline struggle.I was very worried about whether to take the road of protesting outside the court, but after the ruling party forcibly passed the private school law at the plenary session of the Congress, I even published "Talk to the Nation" publicly.The Grand National Party was in a state of emergency for a while, and we held a joint meeting of the Supreme Council and important members of parliament, as well as a general assembly of members. My conclusion is that there must be no compromise. The Private Schools Act is about our children, and if our children think differently, the very foundations of the country will change.We can't take it any longer to see a bill of this magnitude being exploited by the ruling party.

In the early stage of the private school law protest, "revising a reasonable private school law" was the appeal of the Grand National Party.However, the ruling party distorted it to mean that "the Grand National Party, which supports the corruption of private schools, is fighting against the revision of the private school law", which caused the media to treat us indifferently, and many people also treated the Grand National Party's off-site protests with indifference. Immediately, some members of the party advocated that "people's livelihood should be taken into account, and the problems we are facing now cannot be solved by fighting outside the field. It is better to choose a detour."But this time I can’t back down. I said to the congressmen at the general meeting of congressmen: “There are good reasons why we abandon everything and are determined to fight outside the court. If more than half of the people want to go back to the Congress, we will end this Fight on the sidelines; if not, we will fight to the end. Regulations that will shake the essence of the country must not be passed. If the foundation of the regulations is not clear, the entire country of the Republic of Korea will be affected. This must not be forgotten .”

Lawmakers expressed their determination to continue the fight.Even as the GNP's poll ratings drop, everyone is united in showing their will to stick to their beliefs. The location chosen for the initial street protest was Myeongdong, where we gathered and distributed leaflets to the public to expose the injustice of forcing the private school law.But that year was the year with the lowest temperature in history. As long as you stand outside for a while, your feet will be frozen; even if you wear thick autumn clothes and a sweater, your body still feels chills.The winter of the year when we fought against the private school law was really very cold.

Together with private school groups and religious groups, we held large-scale rallies at Seoul Station, the square in front of City Hall, and major cities across the country.Trucks have also been remodeled, and small-scale mobile rallies continue to be held.Then slowly, the public began to know what was wrong with the most controversial "open governing system".Seminars and symposiums on private school law have been held across the country, and protest headquarters have been established. As our struggle continued, people's concern and understanding gradually increased, and the results of media polls also began to improve.Even members of the ruling party who originally stated that "the private school law must never be revised" have become uneasy.On January 31, 2006, representatives from the ruling and opposition parties held a walking meeting in Bukhansan Mountain in the cold winter, and the 53-day-long continuous struggle finally came to an end.At Bukhansan, an agreement was reached to "discuss the revision of the private school law." On February 1, Congress resumed its session.

After that, the private school law has not been revised yet.However, the momentum of the government's ruling party has gradually dissipated.Although some people in the ruling party opposed the revision of the private school law, the ruling party had no choice but to give in gradually under the collective protests of numerous social and religious groups and citizens. The protest against the private school law has attracted many people to say that I "made a conservative and strong impression on the people" and that I did business at a loss.However, I absolutely do not regret my choice.Even a man who makes concessions or makes small things small will have his last stronghold.For me, that's "education".Education is fundamental to our future, and I will never sit idly by, nor can I sit idly by, if someone takes advantage of it.It would be a big wound in my conscience to just sit and watch with my eyes closed because fighting against the private school law would cost me money.Then I gave up "free life" and took on "endless responsibilities", and it was meaningless to return to the road of politics.