Labor rejects Gonski's 'red tape'

LABOR has dropped a recommendation of the Gonski review to establish an independent body to set funding levels for schools.

LABOR has dropped a key recommendation of the Gonski review of school funding to establish an independent body to set funding levels for schools and take the isssue out of the political arena.

School Education Minister Peter Garrett said governments were best placed to make decisions about the resourcing of schools.

"We spend billions of dollars on schools every year and governments are best placed to direct that funding and be accountable for it to the public," he said. "Any future extra investment in schools will require a high degree of transparency and a clear focus on school improvement. Adding another level of administration and bureaucracy to set and review school funding is unnecessary."

The decision is welcome news to state and territory governments, who had opposed the establishment of the body as another layer of bureaucracy and feared it would take control of their education budgets out of state hands.

The Gonski report recommended federal, state and territory governments establish a national schools resourcing body to recommend the level of funding required based on the latest evidence and data, but the education ministers would make the final decision.

The government has also modified the Gonski report's recommendations on the supplementary payments, or loadings, that provide extra money to students with specific needs.

The report recommends a loading for students from the bottom quarter of low-income families. But the government proposes expanding this to students in the bottom half of the socio-economic measure, and that every indigenous student attract extra funding.

Mr Garrett said the wider application of the loadings provided extra funding for a further 875,000 students from low-income families, and a total of more than 1.7 million students in almost every school, while a further 31,900 indigenous students would receive extra money.

Negotiations between the federal government and the states and territories over implementing the Gonski model start this week. Ms Gillard has already spoken to NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell and West Australian Premier Colin Barnett while Mr Garrett will hold a telephone conference with education ministers on Friday.

Mr Barnett met Ms Gillard in Perth yesterday and said some of his concerns were allayed, particularly that there would be no reduction in state government funding of public schools and that the commonwealth had no ambition to run schools or employ teachers.

"I think that gives me a greater sense of comfort and I agreed that Western Australia would have the negotiations and discussions with the commonwealth about a consistent funding formula. That in itself will take some work," he said.

After talking to the Prime Minister on Monday night, Mr O'Farrell said NSW was happy to discuss a funding deal, but Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said Ms Gillard had adopted a "very aggressive political strategy". "It's like someone bursting into a bar and shouting 'Hey everybody should get a drink' and then goes 'Oh well, look, I want you to pay for your own drinks first'," he said.