Julia Gillard aims to pass Gonski reform plan before September election

JULIA Gillard has vowed to have her Gonski school reform package legislated before the election, despite some states' hostile reaction to the plan.

JULIA Gillard has vowed to have her Gonski school reform package legislated before the election, despite state government hostility towards the plan in Western Australia and Queensland.

The Prime Minister today rebuffed suggestions she had left her school funding reforms too late, declaring “yes, we will” enact the package before the September 14 poll.

“It's not about the fight, it's about the outcome,” Ms Gillard told the Nine Network.

“This is what got me into politics. This is why I'm here.”

Greens leader Christine Milne said her party would do “whatever it takes” to get the reforms through parliament before the election, either by sitting later or through extra sitting weeks.

The worst thing that could happen would be if the school funding changes were taken to the election, which opinion polls showed was likely to be won by the Coalition.

“That is a prescription for saying that school children around Australia are going to miss out for another generation," Senator Milne said.

WA's Premier Colin Barnett is furious with the commonwealth's offer of an extra $300 million, when NSW schools will reap $3.2 billion.

“If you look at it on a state-by-state basis, you can see the brazen politics in this - a disdain for Western Australia and West Australian children,” Mr Barnett told ABC radio.

Queensland is also sceptical of the proposals, which will be the subject of a Council of Australian Governments meeting on Friday.

Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said he was unsure whether the funding would have a positive impact on the state's schools.

“As a parent I'm confused, I'm sure teachers and students and principals are confused as well,” he said.

“That's something we need to clarify, to make sure that our worse-off schools do not continue to be worse off under a standard that the federal government set originally.”

Victorian Premier Dennis Napthine says his government supports the reforms in principle, but needs time to read the fine print.

“So what we want to do is read the fine print, get it right, to make sure the Victorian education system across the board benefits from this once-in-a-lifetime deal,” he said.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell said he was determined to ensure that any deal done was in the best interest of families and students, and that the state would not sign up something it could not afford.

He said his government would have to make further budget savings to find the $1.7 billion it needs to sign up to the Gonski plan.

“I don't want to have the best resourced schools in Australia but have a situation where parents can't afford to use transport to get their children to those schools,” Mr O'Farrell said.

Under the Gonski plan, an extra $14.5 billion would be pumped into the national education system over the next six years, with the commonwealth contributing $9.4 billion, or 65 per cent of the funding.

University leaders - including University of NSW chancellor David Gonski, who designed the reforms - have criticised the government's move to cut tertiary funding to help pay for the initiative.

But Ms Gillard said universities were only being asked to slow their rate of growth for a worthy cause.

“I can absolutely respect David Gonski's words,” she said.

“If I was a chancellor of a university, I'd be saying similar things, but my job as Prime Minister is to weigh all the benefits here.”

Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne said it would be “irresponsible” of Ms Gillard to proceed with a new funding model after the COAG meeting on Friday if any of the states and territories were in disagreement.

“If the Prime Minister thinks that is viable, then she really has lost it,” he told Sky News.

He said the current funding model introduced by the Howard government was “perfectly good” and the Coalition would index that on the current arrangements, which meant around six per cent.

This was more than the 4.7 per cent the government was offering, Mr Pyne said.

Additional reporting: Rachel Baxendale, AAP