현행 주민 직선 교육감 선출제도의 문제점과 개선방안에 관한 연구

Current direct election system of superintendent was introduced to initiate educational reform and to increase participation of residents in local education autonomy by revising Local Education Autonomy Act on Dec 20th 2006 (Law No. 8069). The Local Education Autonomy Act stipulates direct election system of superintendent as a way of guaranteeing values of independence, professionalism, and political neutrality of education which are stated in the article 31, Section 4 of the Constitution. In addition, it tries further to strengthen value of political neutrality of education by drawing the essence of local education autonomy from the Chapter 8 of the Constitution, As a result, the Local Education Autonomy Act prohibits intervention and candidacy by political parties and those members. However, since the revision of the law, the direct election system of superintendent has caused many problems such as low voter turnout, public indifference, lack of understanding by citizen, obscure voting process which distorting information transmission, voting result deviated away from popular will, et cetera. In order to solve the problems, introduction of appointment system or party nomination system are suggested. However, prior to any discussion, it is necessary to examine whether each system is allowed by the Constitution. For the appointment system, there may be problems of guaranteeing the system of local education autonomy, and for the party nomination system, there may be issues with independence, professionalism and political neutrality of education, The appointment system by mayor or governor, which is already adopted in many other countries, is constitutionally permissible with a view of integrative interpretation that education autonomy and local autonomy can not be distinguished. It may induce one-combined local autonomous affairs, which is not a violation of the essential contents of local autonomy. In addition, it is not a violation of the essential nature of educational independence, professionalism and political neutrality either. The party nomination system, which requires abolition of clauses prohibiting intervention and candidacy by political parties and those members stated in the Local Education Autonomy Act, is also constitutionally permissible in terms of not only the principles of national sovereignty, democracy, and equality, but also the essential contents of independence, professionalism and political neutrality of education. As long as the Local Education Autonomy Act adopts election system for selection of superintendent, with the fact that Article 8 of the Constitution states the principles of political parties to participate in elections, and with the consideration that nomination process may act as a tool for verifying candidate qualifications and for limiting the number of candidates, it is necessary to introduce party nomination system as soon as possible.