Julia Gillard signs South Australia up for Gonski

JULIA Gillard has sealed an education deal worth $656m over six years with South Australia to secure the support of a second state for her Gonski reforms.

Julia Gillard

JULIA Gillard has sealed an education deal worth $656 million over six years with South Australia to secure the support of a second state for Labor's Gonski reforms.

The Prime Minister signed the agreement with South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill at Ms Gillard's former primary school, Mitcham Primary, in Adelaide this morning.

The federal government had originally offered South Australia $566m over six years, but increased its combined federal-state funding proposal to $656 million to secure Mr Weatherill's signature before the June 30 deadline set by Ms Gillard.

South Australia joins NSW and the ACT in signing on to Ms Gillard's Gonski education funding reforms. Other states are resisting the proposals.

“If South Australian kids fall behind the standards of the world then South Australia can't have a strong economy in the future,” said Ms Gillard, as she called on other premiers and the chief minister of the Northern Territory to conclude their agreements.

PICTURE GALLERY: Gillard and Rudd head back to school

The federal government says the $656m will lift per-student funding in South Australia to a new resourcing benchmark, benefiting 250,000 students across the state.

With indexation, the deal with deliver a total of $1.1 billion in extra funding over six years - $717m for public schools, $197m for Catholic schools and $186m for the independent sector.

“It's an extraordinary achievement, and thankyou for bringing it to this state,” Mr Weatherill told Ms Gillard.

The breakthrough comes as NSW government said it was prepared to activate the “no-disadvantage” clause in its school funding agreement with the commonwealth as it sought clarification on whether an offer to triple funding for Western Australia left NSW worse off financially.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell, the first state or territory leader to sign up to the Gonski reforms, said Education Minister Adrian Piccoli was investigating whether the offer breached the funding agreement and whether the state would seek to enforce the no-disadvantage clause in its agreement.

“The Prime Minister clearly said the same deal that NSW was signing up to was available to other states and territories no better, no worse,” Mr O'Farrell said yesterday.

Visiting Perth on Wednesday, Ms Gillard offered a massive boost in funding for West Australian schools under its new model, from $300m to more than $920m, of which the commonwealth would pay almost $600m.