Sept. 20 Legislative Report: Cho Kuk Innovation Party Lawmakers Serve on Both Education Committee and Special Committee on Budget
Rep. Kim Jung-sik of the Cho Kuk Innovation Party has taken a seat on the Education Committee of the 22nd National Assembly.
According to publicly available data from the National Assembly's Bill Information System, Rep. Kim has been assigned to the Education Committee, where he will handle the review of education-related bills and conduct parliamentary audits. Like several other lawmakers from his party, he has also been confirmed to serve concurrently on the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts. Committee assignments are significant as the first indicator of where an individual lawmaker's legislative capabilities will be focused.
Cho Kuk Innovation Party Lawmakers Serving on Both the Education Committee and the Budget Committee
Rep. Kim is not alone. Open Assembly data shows that a substantial number of Cho Kuk Innovation Party lawmakers, including Lee Dae-hyung, Lee Sol, Jeon Byung-guk, Choi Jin-baek, Cho Soo-bin, Koo Na-yeon, Woo Seok-kyun, Kim Gun-hwi, and Kim Chun-hwa, have been assigned simultaneously to the Education Committee and the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts. Rep. Lee Seul-gi of the Democratic Party of Korea follows the same structure across party lines. For a minor party, having a single lawmaker shuttle between two committees to broaden the scope of legislative review is seen as a realistic strategy.
Meanwhile, Rep. Kim Chun-hwa is known to have previously served on the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. Observers suggest she could contribute to handling prosecution reform-related legislation by leveraging that experience. Despite being a member of the Education Committee, her combined legal and legislative expertise could become a variable in discussions on reforming the status of teachers and school-related systems.
Party Defection Votes Reveal the Legislative Landscape
There is another window into the character of the 22nd National Assembly: defections from party lines are occurring repeatedly in plenary votes. In the partial revision of the Special Act on the October 29 Itaewon Crowd Crush, passed on September 3, four lawmakers from the People Power Party — Kim Jang-kyum, Joo Ho-young, Kang Seung-kyu, and Lee Jong-woo — cast votes against their party's official position. On the same day, on the partial revision of the National Intelligence Service Act, Democratic Party lawmakers Jeon Jin-sook, Seo Mi-hwa, and Moon Jung-bok broke ranks to vote against it.
Slightly earlier, in the August 26 vote on the alternative bill for the Act on Agricultural and Fisheries Councils, eight People Power Party lawmakers — Cho Bae-sook, Park Sung-hoon, Choi Soo-jin, Shin Dong-wook, Choi Bo-yoon, Lee Man-hee, Yoon Jae-ok, and Kang Min-kuk — split their party with a vote of 34 in favor to 8 against. Across party lines, the more contentious the bill, the weaker the binding force of party positions becomes. This is not unrelated to an environment in which minor parties hold the casting vote as negotiating bodies in the Assembly.
The Future of Education Legislation
The Education Committee faces multiple pressures of late. Student test-takers and parent groups have held rallies in front of the National Assembly over the fairness of early admissions application processes, putting trust in the college admissions system on the line. How Education Committee members reflect these on-the-ground demands in bill review is expected to be a key point of interest in the upcoming parliamentary audit and regular session.
The committee's budget work is also worth watching. Education accounts for a large share of government spending, and there are considerable tasks of adjustment surrounding allocations by region and income level. Cho Kuk Innovation Party lawmakers on the Budget Committee, including Rep. Kim Jung-sik, will exercise their influence during audits and budget review by demanding documents from relevant ministries and proposing cuts and increases.
It is often said that in education, individual will matters as much as institutions. Yet when institutions crumble, individual effort can hardly be fully realized. Committee assignments are the starting point for fixing those institutions. It remains to be seen what bills Rep. Kim Jung-sik will introduce and review on the Education Committee, and where the Cho Kuk Innovation Party's legislative path will lead amid today's Assembly landscape of frequent defection votes.
