Parents' Complaints About Discriminatory Support Met with Jeonju Education Support Office's Response: "Selection Based on Guidelines and Budget"
[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hong Jaehee] As local governments on the front lines have decided to exclude the fourth and subsequent children in multi-child families from the school milk supply support, parents with multiple children are voicing strong dissatisfaction, calling it discriminatory support.
According to Jeonju City and Jeonju Office of Education in Jeollabuk-do on the 7th, this year, 1.4 billion KRW will be invested to provide free milk to a total of 18,000 students from 491 elementary, middle, high, and special schools, including 4,669 multi-child students and 1,720 multicultural students.
The free milk support recipients are selected according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ (hereafter MAFRA) “School Milk Supply Project Implementation Guidelines.”
The free milk support recipients are classified as national basic livelihood security recipients, lower-income groups, single-parent families, special education recipients, and others attending elementary, middle, and high schools.
Other recipients are selected through consultation between local governments and regional educational institutions.
The Jeonju Office of Education classified and determined other recipients in the order of below 70% of median income, multi-child families, principal recommendations, multicultural families, recognized refugees, and children of national merit recipients.
The issue is that for multi-child families, only the third child is supported.
As a result, the fourth and fifth children in multi-child families have been excluded from the free milk support, leading parents with multiple children to express dissatisfaction, saying it is unfair.
Parent A said, “Until last year, the fourth and fifth children were also eligible for free milk supply, but this year they were excluded,” adding, “While multicultural and recognized refugee children are receiving free support, the fourth and fifth children in multi-child families were excluded.”
In response, Jeonju City explained that due to changes in MAFRA guidelines, the number of school milk supply recipients increased by 5,000, leading to an adjustment in the number of payment days from 250 to 222, and support being limited to the third child only.
Additionally, the Jeonju Office of Education added that in 2018, support was provided to the third and subsequent children in multi-child families, and last year, when multi-child selection was not specified, support was given only in December upon application from hopeful schools.
However, MAFRA stated, “The examples listed under ‘other recipients’ in the guidelines are just examples,” and “Local governments can select recipients according to their budgets,” providing a different answer.
Officials from Jeonju City and Jeonju Office of Education said, “The reason only the third child among multi-child families was selected is that there are more third children than fourth or fifth children,” and added, “We will strive to secure additional budgets to provide milk supply support to more students.”
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