The conflict between the central government and local educational offices over the financing of the early childhood education and care program is escalating, causing anxiety among parents with preschoolers.

The government introduced the Nuri Curriculum, a universal care service for children aged 3 to 5, in 2013, in line with President Park Geun-hye’s campaign pledge to strengthen the state’s accountability for early childhood education and care.

Park’s intention was fine. She sought to reduce the parental burden of child rearing in order to raise Korea’s woeful fertility rate and increase female workforce participation.

But the problem was that she expanded childhood education and care services too rapidly, imposing an excessive burden on state coffers. So the government arranged for educational offices in provinces and municipalities to take over the funding responsibility for the Nuri Curriculum from 2015.

Yet local educational offices revolted, arguing their coffers were not deep enough to finance the program on their own.

This year, the central government shouldered 500 billion won ($430 million) of the program’s total cost of about 3.9 trillion won. For next year, the government at first planned to cut off support entirely, but then allocated 300 billion won in the face of outcries from local educational superintendents.

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance asserts that local educational offices will have enough funds next year to finance the program, as the central government has increased educational grants for local governments by 1.8 trillion won.

Furthermore, local governments will see their tax revenues increase next year due to brisk property transactions and a hike in cigarette prices. Local educational offices, the ministry notes, are poised to benefit from increased tax revenues.

Yet local educational authorities offer a different story. They claim that their finances are not in good shape. So they demand that the central government increase its support to 2.1 trillion won in 2016, slightly more than a half of the total cost of 4 trillion won.

They demand 2.1 trillion won because that is the cost of providing the Nuri Curriculum through day care centers. The remaining 1.9 trillion won is required to offer the service through kindergartens.

They distinguish child care centers from kindergartens because the jurisdiction over the former belongs to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which means local educational offices are not responsible for their operation.

For this reason, they refuse to earmark a budget for day care centers, insisting the central government foot the bill.

The central government and local educational offices have been playing a game of chicken for more than a year. People are sick and tired of the never-ending conflict between the two sides.

Each of them may have a case to make, but they should realize that parents with kids suffer while they are engrossed in playing chicken. They should sit for talks to resolve their differences once and for all.