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An opinion poll has found that only 38.1 percent of respondents said all students should receive free school lunches and 53.2 percent supported providing free lunches for students from the bottom 50 percent of households.

 

Hankook Research surveyed 245 male and 255 female adults living in Seoul by random telephone calls on Saturday, asking them to select between two choices: giving free lunches to all students regardless of their parents’ income or giving lunches to those from families in the bottom 50 percent of income.

 

“Seoul city government’s original questionnaire was to ask people to select whether they want to abolish free school meal or not,” Jeong Han-ul, a researcher at the East Asia Institute’s opinion poll center said.

 

“But the government changed the plan, revising the questionnaire to ask people to choose between the two things, which I think became more effective than the previous one.”

 

When asked if they were concerned about the “populist policies” - which is how Mayor Oh Se-hoon refers to the free school meal program - 76 percent of the respondents said they were concerned that the budget needed for free school lunches would lead to more taxes.

 

Also, 58 percent said that if only lower-income students were given free lunches, they would be at a disadvantage, stigmatized by their peers.

 

Among the 500 respondents, 63.3 percent said they will participate in next month’s referendum.

 

Tensions have been mounting in the city government as the Democratic Party-dominated city council opposes the mayor’s attempt to hold a referendum to decide whether children should be given the free meals.

 

While council members have argued that all children should receive free meals, the mayor says that only underprivileged students need the meals.

 

The mayor will announce the date and time of the referendum this week. After that, Oh and others will promote the referendum to citizens of Seoul.

 

City councilors, however, filed for an injunction on July 19 to the Seoul Administrative Court to prevent the city from holding the poll.

 

The Seoul Education Office, led by liberal Superintendent Kwak No-hyun, also filed a lawsuit against the city government to the Constitutional Court, claiming that the government has no right to make a decision on free school meals, which should be determined by the superintendent under the current law.

 

If those courts rule to forbid the referendum, the city would be prohibited from holding the referendum until Oct. 26, when the by-election is held.