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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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 Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 2:01 am Post subject: Gyeonggi can’t afford free school lunches |
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It's good that a large province is eliminating this program that, frankly, was a giveaway from some politicians to get elected. It resulted in reduced spending for native teachers. But it is bad news that the overall budget is being reduced.
http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2976243&cloc=joongangdaily|home|newslist1
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The Gyeonggi Provincial Government will scrap its subsidiary for free school lunches because it can’t afford them, the first local government to pull the plug on the program.
The provincial government said it will be able to save 86 billion won ($77.2 million).
In a statement Thursday on its 2014 budget, the Gyeonggi government said it will cut spending on other investments, such as infrastructure and aid programs for affiliated organizations, to save 513.9 billion won more.
The provincial government’s 86 billion won spending on school lunches accounted for 12 percent of the 713.2 billion won free-meal budget.
The other 88 percent of the budget is shared by the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education and local governments, such as district offices and county offices in the province.
The Gyeonggi government, headed by Gov. Kim Moon-soo, claimed the decision was inevitable because enormous budget deficits were predicted if spending wasn’t cut.
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Why the budget cuts?
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Gyeonggi’s tax revenues are expected to drop 300 billion won next year, in part due to a reduction in an acquisition tax rate, which includes real-estate purchases, proposed by the Park Geun-hye government. Provincial governments share that tax.
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 2:21 am Post subject: |
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The infrastructure projects were mostly uneccesary and hugely wasteful. 60M-a-pop english classrooms with expensive libraries of books the kids will never read and computers they broke within weeks. No loss there.
Providing free meals to everyone is abnormal. Education is not a soup kitchen. Another silly gimmick.
Hiring unemployed ajosshis to sit around and be "school guards"( often the very type of people you would want your children to avoid) - another waste of cash.
Splurging on hiring foreign english teachers, and then inserting them into a system where they are hamstrung and limited as much as possible.
The fact is Gyeonggi has had far too much cash and too little common sense for too long. |
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Stan Rogers
Joined: 20 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 3:50 am Post subject: |
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Yea yea yea, but are they good lunches?
I see nothing wrong with free school lunches. Nobody has a problem giving criminals in prison free lunches, so why not kids in school? |
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YTMND
Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Location: You're the man now dog!!
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| Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 4:32 am Post subject: |
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Rich parents' kids will always have lunch. This is just another notch separating the haves and have nots. There will come a time when the pendulum will swing the other way. So many poor people and then a politician who will win their votes by offering good meals and English teachers.
I hope more of this happens soon. Then we can get back to teaching. |
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newb
Joined: 27 Aug 2012
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 5:06 am Post subject: |
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| Be assured that they'll blame the GEPIK program and NETs for losing lunch for the kids and budget cut. |
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beentheredonethat777
Joined: 27 Jul 2013
Location: AsiaHaven
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| Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 9:51 pm Post subject: |
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[quote="YTMND"]Rich parents' kids will always have lunch. This is just another notch separating the haves and have nots. There will come a time when the pendulum will swing the other way. So many poor people and then a politician who will win their votes by offering good meals and English teachers.
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^^. I agree with you. I am deeply saddened about the future of the school lunch program. There are a lot of poor children whose main meal for the day was the school lunches. I know this for a fact.
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12ax7
Joined: 07 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 10:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Drop in the bucket in comparison to the amount wasted on construction projects. |
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beentheredonethat777
Joined: 27 Jul 2013
Location: AsiaHaven
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| Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 10:33 pm Post subject: |
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| 12ax7 wrote: |
| Drop in the bucket in comparison to the amount wasted on construction projects. |
^^. So, I'm not the only person who is/has noticed non-stop construction
for the past several years? Of course, this could mean progress.
On a personal note,
I recently moved out of the city to the countryside for peace and tranquility of it all. Two weeks ago, a large 2 year construction project began! (LOL)
Every morning at around 6, they began their demolition project to make way for new city, road's etc.,( literally two feet from my off the road accommodation). simply amazing. |
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12ax7
Joined: 07 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 5:11 am Post subject: |
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| beentheredonethat777 wrote: |
| 12ax7 wrote: |
| Drop in the bucket in comparison to the amount wasted on construction projects. |
^^. So, I'm not the only person who is/has noticed non-stop construction
for the past several years? Of course, this could mean progress.
On a personal note,
I recently moved out of the city to the countryside for peace and tranquility of it all. Two weeks ago, a large 2 year construction project began! (LOL)
Every morning at around 6, they began their demolition project to make way for new city, road's etc.,( literally two feet from my off the road accommodation). simply amazing. |
The Four Rivers Project was progress? What about the many ghost airports, fancy international airports built in small towns (yes, Incheon and Busan aren't the only two)? I could go on and on about the white elephants. |
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NohopeSeriously
Joined: 17 Jan 2011
Location: The Christian Right-Wing Educational Republic of Korea
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| Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 9:13 am Post subject: |
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| 12ax7 wrote: |
| Drop in the bucket in comparison to the amount wasted on construction projects. |
Which kinda strange when Gyeonggi-do provincial government is planning to build a 140 billion won concert hall in Suwon in the near future. It's posed to be one of the biggest concert halls in South Korea.
급식 예산 없다더니… 1400억 공연장 짓겠다? (No lunch budget at all.... but planning to build a 140 billion won concert hall?
I said this before. The free school lunch policy isn't about feeding kids at school but for streamlining the budget issues regarding the school lunches.
If you want to ban school lunch, at least completely ban it and revert back to the 1990s when mothers prepare lunch in their lunch boxes. I prefer this because in-school lunch around Korea has become worse since the year 2000.
| newb wrote: |
| Be assured that they'll blame the GEPIK program and NETs for losing lunch for the kids and budget cut. |
And yes. The Korean society always need a convenient scapegoat.
| 12ax7 wrote: |
| The Four Rivers Project was progress? What about the many ghost airports, fancy international airports built in small towns (yes, Incheon and Busan aren't the only two)? I could go on and on about the white elephants. |
Eh, building useless big things is called progress according to Koreans. Koreans always want to be worshiped by others. How do they do it? Why of course by proposing gigantic projects that use a large traction of land. It's their petty nature. Pity the Koreans. |
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Waygeek
Joined: 27 Feb 2013
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| Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 12:09 am Post subject: |
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| Stan Rogers wrote: |
Yea yea yea, but are they good lunches?
I see nothing wrong with free school lunches. Nobody has a problem giving criminals in prison free lunches, so why not kids in school? |
I can't see mommy dropping off a lunch-box to little incarcerated Jimmy every day. Someone has got to feed the prisoners, but the parents should be responsible for feeding their kids. |
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newb
Joined: 27 Aug 2012
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 7:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Waygeek wrote: |
| Stan Rogers wrote: |
Yea yea yea, but are they good lunches?
I see nothing wrong with free school lunches. Nobody has a problem giving criminals in prison free lunches, so why not kids in school? |
I can't see mommy dropping off a lunch-box to little incarcerated Jimmy every day. Someone has got to feed the prisoners, but the parents should be responsible for feeding their kids. |
I think it's too late since Korean parents now have the sense of entitlement embedded in their brain. |
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Waygeek
Joined: 27 Feb 2013
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| Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 10:09 pm Post subject: |
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What are they gonna do? Up and move out of Gyeonggi?  |
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Stan Rogers
Joined: 20 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 10:16 pm Post subject: |
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Update. I went to my son's school yesterday and checked out the lunch for myself. I know Korean food well and I have to say it was pretty good stuff. Healthy and good quality.
Nice to see tax money get spent on something healthy for the kids. I'd trade a war machine or two for that anyday. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 4:21 am Post subject: |
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| Stan Rogers wrote: |
Update. I went to my son's school yesterday and checked out the lunch for myself. I know Korean food well and I have to say it was pretty good stuff. Healthy and good quality.
Nice to see tax money get spent on something healthy for the kids. I'd trade a war machine or two for that anyday. |
Every school is different. Some have great lunches. Some, not so hot. |
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