A bill proposing to give the same investigative power as judicial police officers to public officials in charge of early childhood education and care has been shelved due to pressure from operators of pre-kindergarten institutions.

According to news reports, one of the 13 lawmakers who signed up to the bill has withdrawn his name just because owners of pre-school facilities in his district threatened to campaign against him in the next election.

Under the law on the operation of the National Assembly, a bill jointly proposed by multiple lawmakers is automatically killed if any of them takes his name off the list.

The lawmaker’s action leaves us at a loss for words as it is a typical case of a legislator putting personal interests above national interests.

The 13 lawmakers proposed the bill to enable public officials supervising child care centers to crack down on their corrupt practices more effectively.

There have been unending cases of corruption involving unethical operators of preschools. Their irregularities range from child abuse to illegal receipt of subsidies from the central or local governments. Many schools falsify the registration of teachers as well as children to receive more subsidies.

The number of preschool institutions involved in such illegal activities increased from 924 in 2010 to 1,230 in 2011. Cases of child abuse also increased from 67 in 2009 to 100 in 2010 and further to 159 in 2011.

Illegal practices must have surged last year as the government introduced universal pre-kindergarten schooling. The sharp increase in government subsidies to families with children ages five or below probably provided more opportunities for some unscrupulous child care centers to cheat on subsidy collection and embezzle taxpayers’ money.

But public officials overseeing pre-K schools cannot police aberrant institutions because of manpower shortages and, more importantly, because they lack investigative power, such as tracing the bank accounts of the nursery school operators suspected of wrongdoing.

Universal pre-K has significantly increased the financing burden of the central and local governments. It is expected to increase the strain on their balance sheets this year as tax collection is likely to fall short of the target due to the economic slowdown.

The government’s push for early childhood education and care is basically a step in the right direction. But universal free schooling for all children ages 0 to 5 was premature for Korea. It is getting increasingly difficult for local governments to finance the program.

Under these circumstances, it is necessary to step up oversight of child care centers to prevent them from embezzling public funds. In this regard, lawmakers need to revive the bill and empower public officials engaged in child care services to investigate irregularities of pre-K schools.