Schools funding momentum builds

Kevin Rudd (L) can't understand why the NT government is walking away from extra school funding. Source: AAP

MOMENTUM is building on education reform with independent schools the latest to agree to the federal government's funding plan ahead of the sign-up deadline.

While independent and Catholic schools are covered in the legislation for the new funding system, based on the Gonski recommendations, on Wednesday the Independent Schools Council of Australia (ISCA) and the Commonwealth reached formal agreement.

ISCA executive director Bill Daniels said considerable progress had been made over the past couple of weeks to address the sector's concerns.

"ISCA has always been concerned with the impact of the new funding model at the individual school level," Mr Daniels said on Wednesday.

"To its credit, the government has acknowledged these concerns and constructively worked with the sector to seek solutions."

Education Minister Bill Shorten said the deal meant independent schools would get about $625 million extra from the commonwealth over the next six years.

Another $190 million will flow from the NSW, ACT, South Australian and Tasmanian governments for independent schools in those states.

If all state and territory governments sign up, independent schools will gain more than $1 billion by 2019.

The government has given ISCA its latest funding calculator and modelling so individual schools can work out how much money they'll get in 2014.

"The independent schools have had a look at what this government's done ... and they have put up their hand and said we want to do a deal with you," Mr Shorten told reporters in Melbourne.

However opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne said the announcement was pure farce because all private schools were effectively signed up to the new funding model when the legislation passed parliament in June.

"Far from being historic, what we saw on display was typical Rudd over-promising and under-delivering," he said.

The independent sector agreement comes a day after Tasmania became the fourth jurisdiction to sign on to the plan.

Negotiations continue with Victoria, Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia and the Catholic sector.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Wednesday accused the NT government of "stonewalling" on negotiations for their signing up.

"I don't know what's going on up here but in previous times if a prime minister of Australia came to Darwin and said 'I want to invest $300 million in your schools' they would take probably about 45 seconds to get an immediate and positive response," he told reporters in Darwin.

Victorian premier Denis Napthine said the federal government was "playing ducks and drakes" during negotiations, despite Mr Shorten insisting talks with that state continued to be constructive.

Dr Napthine said his state wouldn't back down from its demand of $7 billion in federal funding, almost triple what the Commonwealth has put on the table.

The Queensland government says it won't budge in its disagreements over the funding model despite the independent schools deal.

WA Premier Colin Barnett said Mr Rudd should push the deadline for a new funding model back by a year.

But Mr Shorten said he didn't want to "relinquish any deadlines".

The hold-out states have until Sunday to sign up.

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