Catholics baulk at Gonski deal

KEVIN Rudd is still trying to settle the concerns of parents of children at non-government schools over the Gonski funding changes.

KEVIN Rudd is still trying to settle the concerns of parents of children at non-government schools over the Gonski funding changes as Catholic parents demand certainty about funding and school management.

The Prime Minister, new Education Minister Bill Shorten and federal education officials are meeting Catholic education administrators who are still calling for changes to the school funding system legislated in the last week of Julia Gillard's leadership.

Mr Rudd and Mr Shorten are negotiating with the non-government sector on changes to be made to regulations attached to the main legislation and reassuring the Catholic sector -- which accounts for 20 per cent of Australia's school population -- that there will be an accommodation.

But yesterday representatives of Catholic school parents called for Mr Rudd and Mr Shorten to provide certainty on funding for next year and guarantee extra funds wouldn't be absorbed by administration.

Council of Catholic School Parents executive director Danielle Cronin said Catholic parents had become aware of financial modelling that showed there would be only "negligible" additional funding per student next year.

"While the federal government has continued to raise community expectations regarding additional new money for schools by bandying around sweeteners for state governments worth billions, we have been warned that relatively meagre levels of new funding will in fact flow to schools from next year," Ms Cronin said.

"Parents and school communities deserve to know exactly what dollars they can expect to see in schools next year. For parents in non-government schools, they also deserve to know what, if any, the impact on school fees will be.

"The uncertainty of not knowing is beginning to cause considerable anxiety."

Ms Cronin said parents were also concerned about how the Australian Education Act would be used to direct funding within the Catholic school system.

"There are fears that increased administrative and regulatory costs imposed by the new model will eat into any funding increase," she said.