We need radical moves to lift our birthrate

The government is trotting out subsidies for infant and toddler day care to keep preschool centers from closing down from shrinking enrollment. The government will subsidize caretakers even when classes are short toddlers. For under-one classes, the government will subsidize 629,000 won ($477) per head to compensate for the shortage of enrollments. The chain closures of day care centers have been paining working parents, which underscores the worsening child care environment for parents and the danger the country faces from its ultralow birthrate.

The number of child care centers totaled 42,572 in 2012 but shrank to 30,923 at the end of 2022. As many as 2,323 closed in 2022, and more than 2,000 per year have shuttered since. The demise is an aftereffect of Korea’s low birthrate, which sank to 0.7 at the end of September last year.

The financial troubles at day care centers are a nightmare for working parents. The latest measure may prevent further collapse of the day care industry, but it is not a lasting solution to the birthrate problem.

Korea’s births have remained stubbornly low despite the 380 trillion won the government has spent on boosting them since 2006. The fallout is spilling over. First-grade enrollment dipped below 400,000 for the first time ever this year, nearly halved from the 657,000 in 2004. President Yoon Suk Yeol is calling for “an entirely different approach” to the challenge.

One proposal relates to the subsidies currently going to 17 metropolitan and provincial education offices. Subsidies for local education offices hit 76 trillion won last year due to the shrinking student population. Some 20.79 percent of the domestic tax is automatically carved out for education subsidies regardless of the number of students. The subsidy that averaged 12 million won per elementary and secondary student last year is expected to soar to 30.39 million by 2032 at this rate, according to the National Assembly’s Budget Office.

Education will be the first sector to take a hit from low births. Irregular enrollment bids at state universities were undersubscribed this year. Institutions can maintain their status quo if their student populations are sustained. But superintendents strongly oppose the idea of slashing their budgets to raise birth rate. A government audit found that billions of dollars of tuition subsidies were squandered last year. Using that money to promote births could be a more effective educational measure.

Day care centers now fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and local education offices. Instead of hoarding money, the ministry should put it to effective use for birth and future education policy.