October 20 Legislative Report: Ruling and Opposition Lawmakers Double Up on Education and Budget Committees
Education bill sponsorship is increasingly concentrated in the Education Committee of the 22nd National Assembly.
According to National Assembly bill and committee data on the Public Data Portal (open.assembly.go.kr), a large number of lawmakers from the Rebuilding Korea Party — including Kim Min-seok, Lee Tae-seok, Jeon Gyu-yeol, Lim Ji-yeon, Lee Ji-hyun, and Park Soo-yoon — hold seats on both the Education Committee and the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts, positioning themselves to handle education legislation and budget review at the same time. Representative Jang of the People Power Party is also confirmed to sit on both committees, meaning the ruling and opposition parties share the same de facto gateway for education legislation.
What the Dual-Committee Structure Signifies
The arrangement in which Education Committee members also sit on the Budget and Accounts Special Committee is more than a routine personnel matter. When the same people draft bills and review budgets, the flow of money needed to implement legislation can be factored in from the very design stage. Records show this in practice: in the Rebuilding Korea Party's case, Rep. Jeon Gyu-yeol co-sponsored education-related amendments such as revisions to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, participated in bills on teacher rights protection and improving the educational environment, and then took part in deliberations on the 2025 budget bill the same year.
Voting records on contentious bills also reveal that education and welfare legislation is an area where defections from party lines occur on both sides of the aisle. At the plenary session on October 1, 2026, the partial amendment to the Rural Development Special Accounts Act saw 86 votes in favor and 16 against within the Democratic Party of Korea, with 16 members — including Kim Young-hwan, Park Ji-won, Min Hong-chul, Shin Jeong-hoon, Lim Ho-seon, Moon Dae-rim, Park Jung-hyun, and Jung Chung-rae — breaking ranks. The People Power Party effectively signaled opposition to the same bill with 4 votes in favor and 40 against, with only four members — Kim Yong-tae, Kwon Young-se, Lee Man-hee, and Lee Sang-hwi — voting yes. The more a bill touches regional interests, the more party-level unified positions collapse.
The Education Subsidy Sparks a Parliamentary Standoff
The biggest issue surrounding the Education Committee is the overhaul of the education subsidy system. According to Yonhap News, People Power Party members on the Education Committee, during audits on October 20 of the Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education, five municipal and provincial education offices in the Yeongnam region, and the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Office of Education, urged aggressive action on amending the education subsidy law. The same day, Gyeongnam Superintendent Kwon Sun-gi, together with the Council of Municipal and Provincial Superintendents, visited the National Assembly and met with National Assembly Speaker Jo Jung-sik, People Power Party floor leader Jung Jeong-sik, and Education Committee leadership to propose countermeasures on the reform.
The education subsidy is a mechanism that transfers a fixed percentage of total domestic tax revenue to education funding. Any amendment lowering that ratio would shake the revenue base of local education finance, which is why the superintendents' council personally lobbied the National Assembly. Since the party that controls the Education Committee will lead the vote, the committee's composition itself is set to become a decisive variable in the fate of the reform.
The Legislative Landscape and Outlook
Dissatisfaction with the pace of legislation in the political sphere is also surfacing openly. At a Cabinet meeting on October 20, President Lee Jae-myung said of delays in industrial accident legislation, "Legislation in the National Assembly is truly frustrating," adding, "Go ask them to do their utmost and speed things up. Even begging won't work, though." Employment and Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon replied, "I am begging hard. I will beg even more." This exchange confirms that the executive branch is pushing a bill imposing economic sanctions on companies that fail to implement safety measures.
The same day, when the Democratic Party of Korea introduced the Mega Special Zone Act to foster regional strategic industries and support businesses, six major economic organizations called for swift passage of the bill, including its labor exemptions — evidence that legislative demand is pouring in across industry, education, and safety. The maneuver of splitting the bill into two, with its 52-hour workweek exemption, amid labor's opposition also reflects a calculation to avoid intra-party defections and splits on contentious bills.
Against this backdrop, the Rebuilding Korea Party Education Committee members' bill sponsorships read as a means for a small party outside the main negotiating blocs to assert its policy presence. Opposition-only bills routinely meet ruling party resistance, but issues with bipartisan consensus, such as teacher rights protection, have a chance of surviving as negotiated amended bills. Should the defection-voting patterns seen in the education subsidy reform vote recur on education bills, a committee majority's party line alone will not guarantee passage. Ultimately, the success or failure of education legislation is expected to hinge on how the few defectors on both sides are brought together.
