Tony Abbott 'won't take money off any school'

TONY Abbott yesterday reiterated his belief that public schools were not short-changed under current funding arrangements.

TONY Abbott yesterday reiterated his belief that public schools were not short-changed under current funding arrangements, yet maintained support for the system that he described as unjust to private schools.

The opposition was forced to promise no school would be worse off under a Coalition government after Julia Gillard construed the Opposition Leader's comments to an independent schools forum on Monday as an intention to cut funding to government schools.

"I was making the very clear point that I don't want to take any money off any school because I think the existing funding system works well," Mr Abbott said yesterday.

Mr Abbott told the forum that private schools, not public, were the victims of an unfair funding system, given they educated 34 per cent of students but received only 21 per cent of government funding.

"There is no question of injustice to public schools here. If anything, the injustice is the other way," he said on Monday.

But Mr Abbott's comments were contradicted yesterday by his education spokesman, Christopher Pyne, who said the current funding system for private schools was not unjust. "The current level of funding for independent schools and government schools is appropriate," he said.

Mr Abbott denied there was a contradiction, saying he and Mr Pyne "said exactly the same thing".

"We both wanted to deal with this myth that somehow public schools are being short-changed. They're not. We support the existing funding system," he said.

Mr Pyne gave an "absolute guarantee" that no school would be worse off under a Coalition government, saying it would maintain current funding plus indexation of 6 per cent to take account of rising costs. The commitment extends to only recurrent funding, and the opposition's proposed $2.8 billion cuts to school funding remain.

After Mr Abbott's comments on Monday, the Prime Minister likened him to Jack the Ripper, "wielding his knife to cut money" out of public schools, telling parliament he had "in his own words said that he is coming for public schools to cut back their funding".

The comments prompted a swift attack by the opposition, with Mr Abbott being ejected for an hour by Deputy Speaker Anna Burke for calling the Prime Minister a liar.

He released a statement clarifying his comments immediately after question time denying he intended to cut public school funding, saying "it was just another lie from Julia Gillard".

Ms Gillard yesterday defended her interpretation, telling parliament that injustice meant funding cuts. "The Leader of the Opposition took the opportunity to outline that every public school was on his hit list," she said. "He said current funding to private schools is an injustice . . . He did say an injustice and by that he means cutbacks for public schools."

The government was due to release its response to the report by businessman David Gonski yesterday and the delay is viewed as evidence that the new school funding model is not ready.

Following reports at the weekend that implementing the Gonski model without amendment would cut funding to one in three schools, public and private, Ms Gillard used her speech to the independent schools forum on Monday to promise increased funding for every school and extol the virtues of the sector, territory usually occupied by the Coalition.