Labor faces showdown with states over school funding 'accounting tricks'

Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek faces a potential clash with the states over their spending on public schools, putting billions of dollars at stake in funding renegotiations should Labor win government next month.

Ms Plibersek has flagged that if elected, Labor would crack down on federal-state funding arrangements that allow states to count costs such as transport, capital depreciation and spending on regulatory bodies towards their education funding contributions.

Labor has promised to pump more money into public schools.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The funding clauses agreed to by the federal Coalition government have been criticised by education experts, who say it is not fair for governments to claim it is spending the money on students' needs-based education, as was promised under the Gonski reforms.

Promising a stricter approach to states' obligations, Ms Plibersek said Labor was pouring $14 billion more into public schools after "six years of cuts and chaos" under the Coalition government.

"In return we will require states and territories to invest strongly and work with us on a concrete plan to improve school performance," she said.

She has warned there will be strings attached to the funding boost and promised to be tough on "accounting tricks".

The NSW Coalition government has responded by defending its funding commitments, while state Labor governments expressed optimism about federal funding boosts and co-operation with Canberra to meet students' needs.

Peter Goss, school education program director at the Grattan Institute, said existing agreements should be rewritten to stop any non-education expenses being allocated as contributions to the needs-based funding benchmark, the Schooling Resource Standard.

Under the deals, states can allocate the "additional funding types" as up to 4 per cent of their Schooling Resource Standard.

"Getting to full funding on the back of reclassifying funding dollars is the wrong way to go about it ... We need to make sure as a nation we do it properly, not on the back of accounting," Dr Goss said.

He predicted state treasurers would resist the change because there was "a lot of money" at stake.

"Renegotiating the national school reform agreements sounds like a big ask but Labor is putting billions of dollars more on the table. They have leverage to ensure that the states are also stepping up to the mark," he said.

State governments are responsible for the vast majority of public school funding. Federal Labor has promised to increase the Commonwealth's contribution to 22.2 per cent from the current 20 per cent.

Under Labor or Coalition policy, schools are still not projected to receive 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell declared that all of the state's spending under the agreement is "related to teaching and learning in NSW public schools".

"Any change to the national funding agreement will be examined if it is put to the states and territories," Ms Mitchell said.

Acting Victorian education minister Gayle Tierney said the state Labor government was looking forward to working with federal counterparts "to ensure that Victorian state schools are properly funded and well-resourced to meet student needs".

The ACT was the only government to forgo a clause allowing the extra spending to be counted towards their core funding obligations.

The territory's Education Minister Yvette Berry said the decision was made "because the needs-based formula does not account for" the spending that is "over and above the benchmark funding level".

Queensland Education Minister Grace Grace promised to co-operate to ensure fair funding for public schools.

State governments have had major grievances with the federal Coalition, clashing over the proportion of federal-state funding and extra spending on Catholic and independent schools.

The federal Coalition has outlined an extra $37.7 billion in school funding over the next decade. Labor is matching support for Catholics and independents and will pour $14.1 billion more into public schools.