Julia Gillard's vow to George Pell on Gonski schools funding

JULIA Gillard has given personal assurances to the Catholic Church that its education system's current share of federal funding will be maintained.

JULIA Gillard has given personal, written assurances to the Catholic Church that its education system's current share of federal funding will be maintained in the long term, in an attempt to win non-government schools' support for the Gonski reforms.

The assurances are certain to annoy other school systems that don't have such guarantees and appear to undermine a central tenet of the Gonski model that schools are funded on the basis of need and not through special deals.

The Prime Minister's written pledge to the Catholic education system followed a meeting with Cardinal George Pell after last month's Council of Australian Governments meeting on education reforms and the agreement of NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell to accept the Gillard government's $5.1 billion deal through to 2019.

The Catholics accepted Ms Gillard's assurance after Cardinal Pell suggested the NSW deal "dudded" the non-government school sector.

But the NSW Catholic Education Commission remains concerned the Gillard government's six-year plan for education changes does not provide certainty for 2014 and that formulas in the draft legislation due next week may still cut non-government schools' funding.

Yesterday School Education Minister Peter Garrett was again unable to give direct assurances on specific funding for individual non-government schools, especially for next year. But he said: "They can expect to see more money going to them over time as well."

Ms Gillard is fighting a desperate political battle to get the states and non-government school sectors to agree to the Gonski changes so that she can legislate by June 30 and campaign on the reforms ahead of the September election.

Labor has declared the changes provide more funding for all schools between now and 2019 and that the election of Tony Abbott would cut $16.2bn from school funding.

As Ms Gillard prepares to brief independent schools on the funding changes in Canberra today, she has sent a direct appeal to all principals to pressure their premiers into accepting the Gonski changes.

In the email, sent via the Department of Education's system, Ms Gillard personally urges support for "an extra $14.5bn invested in Australian schools over the next six years".

In a direct political appeal, Ms Gillard says: "The extra money will only flow if your premier signs up by 30 June 2013".

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said last night the letter "provided information to principals - from government and non-government schools across the country - about the National Plan for School Improvement and what it will mean for schools".

At the same time, Mr Garrett released details of how much non-metropolitan and small schools would gain under the government's reforms, in an apparent attempt to split the Coalition on school funding. He said they would get an extra $6bn over the next six years.

"This means country schools will be the big winners under our plan," Mr Garrett said. "But this extra funding is at threat unless the National Party put their constituents first and support the National Plan for School Improvement."

NSW Education Minister and Nationals MP Adrian Piccoli flew to Canberra to brief his federal colleagues on why NSW signed up to Ms Gillard's Gonski reforms.

He also rebutted federal opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne's claims that under the current system schools funding would increase at a greater rate than under Gonski.

Mr Piccoli told his colleagues that Mr Pyne's claim indexation would continue at 5.6 per cent artificially inflated projections. He said 5.6 per cent was the average over 10 years, but over the past five years it had fallen to just under 3 per cent, and would continue to fall because teachers' salaries had been capped by 2.5 per cent.

Catholic educators are frustrated with the June 30 deadline and believe there is not enough time to pass the legislation and allow planning for the 2014 school year. Independent schools are also concerned about next year but have agreed to consider modelling on two schools using the proposed funding plan. The National Catholic Education Commission and the Independent Schools Council of Australia have complained to Ms Gillard about the "unsatisfactory situation" with and expressed fears "there will be a significant reduction in total funding for independent schools".