Who will pay for the crusade?

Kudelka

THE education revolution coined by Kevin Rudd is over.

Today, the nation is embarking on a crusade, led by our own Jeanne D'Arc, Julia Gillard, as she storms the world to take us into the top five countries for education.

The target is to improve every one of the nation's schools using the battle plan formulated by the independent Gonski review of school funding.

The crucial thing missing is who is going to pay for it.

The Prime Minister yesterday gave a rousing speech calling the nation to arms to improve school education, saying she owed her position in life to going to a good public school and endorsing the Gonski model as the way to ensure every child had the same chance.

"I am incredibly personally conscious that the difference between me standing here and not standing here is the difference between Unley High and having gone to a different state school," Gillard said.

It was the speech Gillard should have given on releasing the Gonski report in February.

Instead, the government's response at the time failed to endorse the Gonski approach, with the Prime Minister describing it only as providing a "good insight".

Nine months after the government received the report and about six months after its public release, we now know broadly what the government wants to do, but have no details on how they are going to pay for it.

Nor do the state and territory governments, who, after all, run most of the nation's schools.

Instead of yesterday receiving a progress report on negotiations and the details of the various payments schools can expect to receive, we are still at square one.