The presidents of private kindergartens believed to be members of the Korea Kindergarten Association filed a lawsuit against the government claiming that the government accounting program, Edufine is illegal.

They argued that the Ministry of Education revised subordinate rules and forced kindergartens to use Edufine despite that there were no grounds for such enforcement, since the "three kindergarten bills," including the Early Childhood Education Act, the mother law, had yet to be passed by the National Assembly. The private kindergartens, which had accepted the introduction of Edufine after the government's hardline response, have launched a counterattack on the government.

On June 6, according to Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Yong-jin and the Seoul Administrative Court, 167 plaintiffs consisting of private kindergarten presidents submitted a lawsuit against Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye on May 24 asking the minister to confirm that Article 53 of the Financial and Accounting Rules for Private Educational Institutions was invalid. They claimed that private kindergartens were not subject to adopt Edufine. This is the first time that the kindergartens have filed an administrative lawsuit concerning Edufine.

The plaintiffs are presumed to be the chiefs of kindergartens that are members of the Korea Kindergarten Association. Attorney Bak Se-gyu, the legal advisor of the association is the legal representative of the plaintiffs. Bak is also the lawyer of Lee Deok-sun, the former chairman of the Korea Kindergarten Association, currently indicted on charges of violating the Private School Act. One director of the private kindergarten said, "From what I know, most of the presidents who joined the litigation are members of the Korea Kindergarten Association."

According to the lawsuit released by lawmaker Park, the plaintiffs argued that "the presidents, who are individual business owners, have the right to freely select their accounting program, and the state forcing directors to use Edufine is a violation of the Constitution." They also argued, "Despite the failure to amend the three kindergarten bills, which are the mother laws, the education ministry revised related rules to have the same effect, which is also illegal."

The education ministry has launched a legal review after receiving the lawsuit, but the mood at the ministry is one of surprise. In fact, in March, the ministry had declared "victory," claiming, "Of the 570 kindergartens that were obliged to introduce the first stage of Edufine this year, 568 kindergartens (99.6%) have adopted the system. So we have practically achieved 100%."

Lawmaker Park said, "The latest lawsuit revealed the intention of the Korea Kindergarten Association to return to a state before the controversial kindergarten crisis by taking advantage of the recent silence in public opinion to neutralize laws and enforcement ordinances."