A Taipei City councilor yesterday demanded that the education minister resign for allegedly failing to accommodate special needs students after the ministry slashed its funding by half this year.
Ministry of Education officials disputed the accusation, claiming the reduction was in accordance with the new Executive Yuan policy and that Taipei City was not discriminated against.
Accusing Minister Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) of sacrificing special needs students for his own political gain, Taipei City Councilor Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said Tu must step down for dereliction of duty by withholding NT$80 million (US$2.5million) from the annual funding.
"The sum was to be used to subsidize after-school programs for special needs children, students from lower-income families and other disadvantaged groups. It is clear that Tu is using the special needs children as punch bags to advance his own political career," Wang said.
Wang went on to accuse the ministry of "picking on Taipei City" when it delayed its funding for the city by a few months.
"Taipei City's Department of Education applied for the funding back in January and mid-March. While all the other counties have received their funding, the ministry has unreasonably delayed funding for Taipei," she added.
Ministry officials hit back by saying the delay occurred because Taipei City's Department of Education did not submit its application on time and did not comply with the application process. Therefore the ministry had to return the application three or four times before it could be processed, said Lo Ching-shui (
"We absolutely did not discriminate against any city. The new Executive Yuan policy states all education funding must be allocated according to the financial capability of the region. Both Taipei City and Kaohsiung City received only 50 percent of their requested amount," he added, repeating that Taipei City was not alone in receiving less than they requested.
The ministry's Special Education Specialist Chang Ching-shu (張金淑) told the Taipei Times that even with a 50 percent reduction, Taipei City received NT$23 million (US$700,000), a little more than half of last year's NT$39 million (US$ 1.1 million), while Kaohsiung City only received NT$12.2 million (US$367,000) this year compared with last year's N$20 million (US$613,000).
At a separate press conference yesterday, Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) lambasted the ministry for hijacking subsidies to force local governments to comply with its policies. Hu said as part of the central government, the ministry had no right to discriminate against any county or withhold funding.
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