On May 3^rd, the presidential transition committee announced an “examination of high school system reorganization to diversify educational curriculum in schools and provide various school types” as a national task of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. Accordingly, many people are paying attention to whether elite high schools, which the previous government had worked to abolish, will instead be revived. High schools in Korea are largely categorized into regular high schools, special-purpose high schools, specialized high schools[1], and autonomous high schools depending on the curriculum. Among them, private autonomous high schools (one form of autonomous high schools) and foreign language high schools (one form of special-purpose high schools) are called elite high schools and there is a social atmosphere in which high-achieving students go there. Since the Moon Jae-in government announced its policy to abolish elite high schools in 2019, in 2020, it has set out a policy to convert elite high schools to regular high schools by 2025 and has deleted the provisions of the Enforcement Decree of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was the basis for the establishment of elite high schools. At the time, elite high schools were abolished on the grounds that they deviated from their original purpose of accommodating diverse educational needs and caused problems such as overheating of private education and ranking of education. There was also strong opposition on the grounds of violating students' right to choose their studies and freedom of operation of private schools. With the announcement of this transition committee, those in favor or against are once again ignited. Let's take a closer look at the positions of both sides on the preservation of elite high schools.

On May 3^rd, the presidential transition committee said in an interview with the Hankyoreh, “The content of diversifying students' options is included in the national task. It can be seen that the meaning of maintaining elite high schools is also included in the task.” This decision of the transition committee is based on the diversification of high school types. Furthermore, it is a desirable decision to guarantee the freedom and fundamental rights of private school operations and students' choices. The Moon Jae-in government announced the abolition of elite high schools citing issues of high school ranking, but in fact, the abolition cannot be a fundamental solution to the current Korean education problem. Therefore, elite high schools must be maintained.

           First, it is necessary to diversify the types of high schools and guarantee students' choice by preserving elite high schools. Elite high schools were introduced in 1984 and 2010 (foreign language high schools in 1984 and private autonomous high schools in 2010) with the purpose of accommodating diverse educational needs. In the rapidly changing environment of the times, there is a demand for convergence talent with creative problem-solving skills. In response to these demands, education should move in the direction of diversification, specialization, and characterization. On May 3^rd, Cho Seong-cheol, a spokesperson for the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations, argued that "a school system that can receive a variety of education according to the interests, aptitudes, abilities, and career paths of various students is necessary." Ignoring these social trends and uniformizing high schools is a only regression in education. Rather than downward equalization by abolishing elite high schools, it is necessary to come up with measures to improve the quality of regular high school education and move toward upward leveling. In addition, students and parents have the right to autonomously choose a school in line with their social needs, and a variety of learning opportunities must be guaranteed. If some problems arise from the operation of elite high schools, it is appropriate to make institutional efforts to supplement them. Trying to get rid of the school itself without making these efforts is simply unilaterally uniformizing education, violating the rights of the students, parents, and teachers of the school concerned. The government should respect the right of students and parents to choose schools. Also, the students in need of excellence in education should be provided with opportunities to unleash their abilities to the fullest. That is education worthy of liberal democracy.

           Second, the abolition of elite high schools is not in line with the values of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea. The freedom and fundamental right to operate private schools is a right derived from Article 10, Article 31 Paragraph 1, and Article 31 Paragraph 3. Abolition of elite high schools is a violation of the freedom and fundamental rights of private school operations. In addition, the collective conversion of elite high schools into regular high schools violates the principle of excess prohibition. The principle of excess prohibition is a principle derived from the Constitution of the Republic of Korea, and the justification of the purpose, the appropriateness of the means, the minimum of infringement, and the balance of legal interests must be satisfied. Specifically, the minimum of infringement means that freedom and rights should be restricted as little as possible by seeking mitigated means and methods. However, the government pushed for abolition without any other attempts, although it was able to find sufficient means other than abolition to solve problems caused by elite high schools. This is a violation of the principle of excess prohibition as there was no attempt at less intrusive means. Abolishing elite high schools which maximally infringes the freedom and fundamental rights of private school operation, and students' right to choose their schools, should not be pushed ahead without any policy changes. Besides, the government promised to guarantee equality of education without differences in educational level depending on economic circumstances through the abolition of elite high schools. Equality as stipulated in the Constitution is relative equality in which each person is given equal opportunities according to their abilities, not absolute equality that makes everything uniform. In the end, the government's policy of abolishing elite high schools is absolute equality that does not take into account the abilities of each individual and only standardizes them. It eventually does not conform to constitutional values.

           Third, the abolition of elite high schools is not a fundamental measure to solve the overheating of private education and the ranking of education. Those who advocate for the abolition of elite high schools say that the abolition can solve the overheating of private education and the ranking of education. But actually in 2019, though the government announced that it would abolish private autonomous high schools, private education expenses did not decrease. When the policy to abolish elite high schools was announced, on the contrary, the influx of the population into “Gangnam 8^th School District[2]”, a prestigious school district for regular high schools, increased rapidly. According to the “Status of 1^st Stage 1 School Groups Desired for Late Regular High Schools in Seoul” on October 25^th, 2021, presented by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, 6123 students applied to Gangnam Seocho-gu School District, which was a 5% increase from 5,810 in 2020. The average monthly private education expenses for children of middle and high school students in the metropolitan area also increased significantly from 840,000 won in 2019 to 990,000 won in 2020 in the Gangnam 3 districts[3]. Also in September 2021, according to a survey of parents in the Seoul area released by the research team of Sungkyunkwan University, 68.9% answered that if private autonomous high schools were abolished in 2025, “the educational gap between regions, such as the resurgence of Gangnam 8^th School District, will increase compared to the present.” In addition, 62.4% answered that “the dependence on private education will increase compared to the present.” In the end, the abolition of elite high schools does not solve the problem of overheating private education or the problem of school ranking. Elite high schools and regular high schools should not be viewed as a kind of “zero-sum” problem. Fierce competition brought by the unemployment crisis and job shortage is often cited as the root of the problem of overheating in private education, and this social environment needs to be improved.

           The preservation of elite high schools is the best measure to ensure the diversification of high school types, the right to choose academics, and the freedom to operate private schools. Also, since problems such as the overheating of private education cannot be fundamentally solved by the consistent conversion to regular high schools, the government needs to find a system that can solve the root causes along with maintaining elite high schools. The longer it is unclear whether elite high schools remain, the more harm the students will suffer. The government should clearly announce the decision to maintain elite high schools as soon as possible so that students and parents do not experience confusion.