Labor insists it could afford $17 billion in funding for schools, money it says was cut under the Turnbull government's Gonski 2.0 plan which passed the parliament last week.
The coalition won crossbench support for its school funding changes by adding an extra $5 billion to the plan, boosting it to $23.5 billion over the next decade but still shy of the figure Labor said it had promised.
Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said at the last election Labor identified $170 billion worth of improvements to the budget bottom line.
This includes changes to negative gearing, capital gains tax, retaining the budget repair levy and not going ahead with business tax cuts.
"We will go to the next election with clearly identified spending cuts and I'm confident people will understand we are well able to afford this investment in our children's education," she told Sky News on Sunday.
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But government frontbencher Christopher Pyne believes Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Education Minister Simon Birmingham having ended the "school funding war".
"Now we can focus on getting our outcomes up," Mr Pyne, a former education minister, told Sky News.
He said under Labor spending increased by 50 per cent over 10 years and education outcomes went backwards.
"It's not just about money, it's actually about teaching, it's about parental engagement, it's about the independence of schools, it's about curriculum."
