The federal government is saying different things about school funding reforms in public and private, Queensland Education Minister John Paul Langbroek says.
He says Queensland has made it clear it will not accept a federal takeover of state schools, reduced funding for kindergartens and universities or anything less than $3.7 billion in extra federal funding.
Mr Langbroek says his federal counterpart Bill Shorten is refusing to negotiate around those three things.
"The federal government keeps changing the goal posts, they're changing the quantum, they're changing the various things that they speak about," he told reporters on Thursday.
"Bill Shorten will say to me privately that they are prepared to change regulation about bureaucracy, but then I don't see proof of that in letters to our officials.
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"We don't want a federal takeover of our schools, we don't want more bureaucracy in our schools when our schools are drowning in red tape."
Mr Langbroek denied his Liberal National Party government was trying to avoid giving federal Labor a win before the upcoming election.
"We're not holding off based on a federal election, this is an offer made 21 days ago on which we've been expecting a response," he said.
"So in good faith I've sought another meeting with Mr Shorten."
Earlier, Mr Shorten said the "incredibly frustrating" talks with the state were going nowhere, and he didn't expect progress before the election.
"The LNP in Queensland is out of step with the prevailing majority opinion about what needs to be done to provide our kids with the best start in life," he said.
Once a federal election is called, the government will go into caretaker mode and won't be able to sign any new school funding deals.
Federal shadow education spokesman Christopher Pyne also denied politics had anything to do with Queensland's refusal to sign up.
"I don't think any politics is coming into the argument about school funding," he told reporters at a Brisbane lunch.
"I think the opposition is trying to show that the government is telling lies about this so called Gonski model and people are being sucked into it."
When asked if he believed NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has been sucked into it, he said: "I think Barry has gone into the agreement with the government with his eyes open and to make it work NSW has to stump up a substantial amount of money."
He said Mr O'Farrell had also managed a number of deals, including a discount on indexation in the short-term.
"Barry has managed to get an agreement that suits NSW and that suits him. Good luck to him," he said.
Mr Pyne said states like Queensland and WA don't want Canberra to run their schools.
