New push, new name for Gonski

KEVIN Rudd will re-sell Labor's $14.5 billion education reforms as a vision for improving schools.

KEVIN Rudd will re-sell Labor's $14.5 billion education reforms as a vision for improving schools through better teachers, a more accountable science curriculum, greater autonomy for principals and more money.

The Prime Minister yesterday sharply altered the message on the Gonski reforms amid backbench alarm the policy is a mystery to many voters.

Mr Rudd also flagged that he will try to strip the name of the reform architect David Gonski from the debate when selling the reforms. But this would not be as a criticism of Mr Gonski, who is a company chairman for his wife Therese Rein.

Mr Rudd said the National Plan for School Improvement represented a significant practical shift in the way that the education system would be run in Australia, bolstered by guarantees of long-term funding.

He also granted the recalcitrant states two more weeks to sign on to the education reforms but warned there would be no open chequebook.

The Prime Minister committed his government to going to the election backing Julia Gillard's education funding model, adding that he was eager to bridge the gap between the commonwealth and independent and Catholic systems.

Mr Rudd made it clear that he would be selling the reforms differently from his predecessor, Ms Gillard, stressing that science would join literacy and numeracy as a nationally tested subject.

Signalling he wanted a new name for the reforms, Mr Rudd said that Mr Gonski found the reference to himself "confusing".

The reforms would build "better futures for our kids".

"It is a program which looks specifically at what we do to lift teacher standards," Mr Rudd added.

First Mr Rudd must seek to widen the national system, with only NSW, South Australia and the ACT having signed up. His most urgent attention will be focused next week on Victoria and Tasmania.

But he said that any deals struck by the middle of next month would be within the parameters of existing agreements.

Mr Rudd also will attempt to woo Queensland Premier Campbell Newman.

He urged the holdout premiers to "look above the parapets" and enter any negotiations with open minds. He said that the parameters for negotiation would be "very, very narrow".

Independent Schools Council of Australia deputy executive director Barry Wallett said the extension of the negotiating deadline was welcome.

Mr Wallett said there were still considerable issues about what would happen to school in states that did not sign up to a Gonski deal.

Victorian Premier Denis Napthine said Mr Rudd's office had indicated he would talk next week.

Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings said discussions with the Rudd government on Gonski had begun and she was comfortable with progress.