[Opinion] Compulsive Obsession for Democracy Ruins the Private Education

The source of competitiveness of the nation and the company in 21st Century is immaterial assets rather than material assets. The immaterial assets originate from education. However, the reality of education in Korea is miserable. Classrooms of the elementary, middle, and high schools have lost their proper function. The international competitiveness of universities is deplorable. To make matters worse, if one looks at the private school related reform bill, one could believe that the leader of the government-ruling party, who lacks the understanding of management structure of the educational institutions, is taking a risk. The problems of finance and management structure of the private school are related to each other and they originate in the absence of political philosophy.

The industry of education is one of the representative examples of market failure. Why? Although there are more demands, the government cannot raise the tuition according to the market principle because education is considered to be a public property. Meanwhile, it is difficult for the traditional education to improve productivity because it is labor-intensive service industry. Therefore, in order to provide a good quality of education service, the rate of expense increase cannot but be higher compared with other industries which can improve productivity. After all, a deficit is inevitable in the industry of education. The inevitability of a deficit is the very reason for the market failure in the industry of education.

It is a universal political philosophy that a nation would take the responsibility for education in order to treat the market failure in the industry of education. Private university is an exceptional entity because of its principle that supports the national-public university as being in charge of the higher education. Only 20 percent of the universities are private based on the number of students even in the U.S. where there are many prestigious private universities. Japan is exceptional as 75 percent of universities are private. Both Japan and the U.S. provide a good quality education by supporting 10-20 percent of finance of the private universities. Developed countries have increased the investment in education competitively since the turning point in which productivity in the industry of education could be augmented due to the development of electric communication and audio-visual technology.

Korea, like Japan, is exceptional as 75 percent of universities are private. However, Korea is also exceptional in that the government aids consist of only 3 percent of the finance of the private universities. The two exceptions that originate in the absence of political philosophy are the phenomenon of the government failure in university education and the major offender to bring about the deterioration of education level.

The government failure in education is revealed in its excessive interference in the management of the private universities. Although the rate of the government aids to the private universities is low and the government does not allow admission through donation, the level of government interference is world’s highest. It is clear that the government failure in education will be aggravated if the private school related reform bill is passed. The core of the reform bill is to transfer the trustee’s management authority to the professorial committee and administration committee of the elementary, middle, and high schools after changing them to legislative organs. This idea is based on the purpose to prevent the monopoly of some private foundations, which are corrupted, and to realize the democratization of education. However, it is apparent that the reform bill is not reform but retrogressive revision if one understands the operating principle of management structure which secures the autonomy and responsibility that are the core of management. The problem of corrupted foundation of the private universities should be resolved by improving the transparency of the management that can increase the level of surveillance of the society as well as members of the universities. Reform of the law should be guided to this direction. Participatory management is desirable since it is important to hear the opinions of the members when universities decide on an important policy. However, participatory management is different from democratic management, and school is not an institution that can be managed based on the democratic principles. Therefore, private school related reform bill should be reexamined overall.

Although the people`s educational zeal is world’s highest, the elementary, middle, and high school education is breaking down. There is not a single university ranked within the top 100 universities in the world. How can educational-emigrations increase? The government should treat the market failure in the industry of education. However, the industry of education in Korea is the example of government failure. If our education fails, political leaders should take absolute responsibilities. The prior task to solve the problems of finance and management system of the private schools is to establish the political leaders’ political philosophy of education.

Park Sang-Yong (Professor of Business Management, Yonsei University)