States complaining about potentially missing out on education funding under the coalitions' revamped Gonski reforms should "get real", West Australian Premier Colin Barnett says.
Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne sparked outrage from the states and territories, and the federal opposition, when he announced the funding package set up by Labor would only apply in 2014 and a new scheme would be negotiated for 2015.
The former Labor government earlier this year got the backing of NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, as well as independent and Catholic schools, for a new funding model based on student needs.
Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory held out, but on Wednesday the Abbott government said it would claw back an extra $230 million for their schools for 2014.
Mr Barnett admitted his state appeared set for a better deal, but said it was too early to say how good.
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And the WA premier had some advice for other states feeling slighted.
"The others states are running around screaming that we signed up. Well get real - it is a political process," Mr Barnett said.
"What happened under the Labor government was confusing from the federal government. Doing secret deals with one state and a different deal with another was just nonsensical.
"You cannot have federal funding into education discriminating between states."
Mr Pyne said the Gonski scheme had become a "shambles" and had too many strings attached to be effective - an analysis Mr Barnett backed.
"He should go back to square one, and I would expect funding to be distributed fairly across every state, every school, and every boy and girl in Australia," Mr Barnett said.
