Gonski deal 'too good to ignore'

THE NSW government has rejected criticism it had been "conned" in signing up to the federal government's school funding model.

THE NSW government has rejected criticism it had been "conned" in signing up to the federal government's school funding model, with Education Minister Adrian Piccoli saying the deal was a "no brainer" and too good to walk away from.

In an interview with The Weekend Australian, Mr Piccoli said the main issue facing the NSW government in negotiating with Julia Gillard on schools funding was how much money it was expected to contribute and whether it could find the money in its tight budget.

"The real hurdle was finding the NSW contribution of $1.7 billion," he said. "Obviously we were frustrated it took so long to get an offer on the table but when an offer was put there, within three weeks we negotiated something to sign. For $1.7bn, we got an extra $3.5bn."

Mr Piccoli released figures calculated by the state education department showing NSW schools receive an initial funding boost of $150 million in the first year with gradually rising increases over the following five years.

Mr Piccoli said the scale of the benefit to schools in other states, particularly Victoria and Queensland, were similar to that in NSW, if not greater.

The NSW schools funding deal also delivers substantially more commonwealth money to schools than the existing system, or the proposal from the federal Coalition to extend the current funding system and maintain theextra targeted funding under National Partnerships for one year.

The deal allows NSW to wind back the freeze it placed on its own funding of non-government schools last year after cutting about $1.7bn from the education budget, with the cap now in place for only 18 months instead of four years.

Mr Piccoli's comments came as Peter Garrett reassured non-government schools their funding under the National Plan for School Improvement would not be cut.

The federal Education Minister said the government's plan would "deliver a better funding deal for schools and provide both government and non-government schools funding certainty into the future".

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott lobbied NSW cabinet ministers before the state signed the deal to not adopt the new school funding model, arguing the system was not broken, but Mr Piccoli said there was no alternative plan from the federal Coalition.

"We had two deals on the table; one was the status quo, the other was the Gonski model. Under the status quo, we lose National Partnership money.

"Under the Gonski model, the National Partnership money is rolled into recurrent funding," he said. "It's extremely clear that what we signed up to is better than the existing model and better than what the federal opposition is suggesting."

Mr Piccoli said the debate around the NSW cabinet table was whether the state could find the money for its contribution, not whether the model should be adopted, and the underlying premise of funding schools based on the needs of their students was widely supported.

"It's not just about the quantum of money, it's also about the change in the formula for determining the amount of money that goes to schools.

"David Gonski, who's not a left-wing communist sympathiser, said the current system is flawed and I totally agree. The dollar values are one issue, but more importantly it's a structural change to the formula for how you distribute schools funding. We certainly appreciate the extra money but the system has to change because it's flawed."

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: DENNIS SHANAHAN