State governments have reacted to Prime Minister Julia Gillard's announcement on Sunday of Labor's schools improvement plan, which she said was vital to Australia building a world leading education system.
Ms Gillard offered state and territory governments $2 for every extra $1 they invest in education, under her plan to boost schools funding.
State leaders are heading to Canberra on Friday for the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting, when Ms Gillard will press them to sign an agreement.
Several coalition premiers have spoken out against the commonwealth plan for them to pay 35 per cent of the extra $14.5 billion to be pumped into schools over six years.
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GOVERNMENT RESPONSES
"It's a lot of money, but I believe it is a wise investment in our childrens' future and our nation's future." - Prime Minister Julia Gillard on the $14.5 billion schools funding plan.
"We are not proposing to take over the running of state school systems." - Education Minister Peter Garrett.
Mr Garrett said the states would have to determine priorities and "think through the consequences" of underinvesting in education.
"They've delivered a con-ski, not a Gonski." - Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne says Ms Gillard's plan looks toward Labor's re-election, not improving education.
"This gap is too big to be tolerated." - Independent MP Rob Oakeshott on the 30 per cent gap between results for metropolitan students and their rural and indigenous counterparts under the current funding model.
He called for bipartisan support for the plan and co-operation between the school sectors.
"It ensures there aren't winners and losers, there's just winners and bigger winners." - Labor cabinet minister Anthony Albanese.
"Appalling policy from Labor." - Greens senator Lee Rhiannon vents her anger on Twitter, saying schools funding should have come from mining, not cuts to universities.
"I'm not prepared to have the school children of Australia held to ransom by an at-risk proposition," Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne told reporters in Hobart on Monday.
Senator Milne said the Greens would do "whatever it takes" to get the reforms through parliament, either by sitting later or through extra sitting weeks.
She said the worst thing that could happen would be if the school funding changes were taken to the September 14 poll.
"The bottom line is that the federal government has turned out to be a terrible disappointment on education," Independent MP Andrew Wilkie said in a statement.
Mr Wilkie said the Gonski recommendations provided the government a once in a lifetime opportunity to reform education funding, but instead they'd gone with a political fix.
The fact Labor cut into university funding to pay for its schools plan was "genuinely appalling", he added.
STATE PREMIERS
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
West Australian Premier Colin Barnett says there's "no way" he'd sign up for a deal that leaves his state worse off.
"I would have to be nuts to sign up to something like that."
"This is clearly focused heavily on trying to win seats in the upcoming federal election on the east coast and just ignoring students - girls and boys in our schools - in Western Australia,"
he told ABC radio.
"I think it's a disgraceful and shameful pretense by a prime minister who is not genuinely looking at education improvement, and is simply playing divisive politics."
QUEENSLAND
"I know the state of Queensland doesn't have the money they're talking about," Queensland Premier Campbell Newman criticised Ms Gillard for not discussing the plan with him beforehand.
Mr Newman, after complaining about not being properly notified about the funding proposal, took to Twitter on Sunday night to question where the money for the two-for-one funding model will come from.
"I am amazed by reporting on Gonski - somehow, magically the federal govt has a surplus and the money to pay. Let's see at budget time," he tweeted.
VICTORIA
"In principle, we agree," Victorian Premier Denis Napthine told ABC radio on Monday.
"But we need to make sure there aren't schools that are missed out in the process.
"We're going to read it and study it in detail."
He attacked Ms Gillard's decision to cut university funding to help pay for the $14.5 billion Gonski school funding reforms.
"This is very disappointing that the prime minister is seeking to rob Peter to pay Paul, rob the universities to pay for primary and secondary education," Dr Napthine told reporters.
However, Victorian Education Minister Martin Dixon said the federal government was demanding how the money be spent.
"Basically they're saying, `here's a whole bunch of money, but you've got to do it our way'," He told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.
“They should be working with us, not holding us to ransom."
NEW SOUTH WALES
NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell said the NSW government has always supported the Gonski reforms, but it will be difficult to come up with the extra money.
"Having lost $5 billion in federal GST refunds last year, it'll be tough to find the $1.7 billion being asked of us by the federal government," Mr O'Farrell told ABC Radio on Monday.
"If we were to sign up to Gonski, we would have to find further savings across the budget."
Mr O'Farrell said the state government would have to look at the details of the proposal.
"(and) whether we're able through targeted savings, more fat trimming and belt tightening, to be able to afford not just the $1.7 billion over the next four years but the ongoing costs," he said.
TASMANIA
Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings said her government would back the reforms if the funding was directed towards schools with the greatest need.
"The firm funding commitment announced by the prime minister today is a significant step," she said.
"We want to see Tasmania's strong and vibrant public schools continue to grow and prosper."
Opposition education spokesman Michael Ferguson said the state government had already ripped out $190 million from the state's schools.
"The funding announced today will largely be swallowed up to fill that black hole," Mr Ferguson said.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill says the state isn't ready to sign up to the federal government's new school funding proposal.
SA will get $600 million under the plan, proportionally less than other states because the state government already spends more on education for each student.
That has raised issues of fairness from the state's education sector.
Mr Weatherill says there are still substantial negotiations to be completed.
"There is a long way to travel," he said.
"We will be protecting South Australia's interests in those negotiations."
INDUSTRY
David Gonski, the architect of Labor's new funding model, distanced himself from the cuts the Gillard government made to tertiary education to pay for the school reforms.
"I fervently believe in and will continue to advocate that increases be made in funding the university sector."
Universities Australia chair Glyn Davis said the overwhelming majority of his colleagues strongly supported the objective of schools be funded to international standards.
"We should have first class schools available to every student, public or private," he told ABC Radio.
Professor Davis said the cuts to universities funding to help pay for schools funding meant his sector had to work on "very, very" fine margins.
"Today's announcement is about distributing funding according to need, distributing to disadvantage," said Australian Education Union national president Angelo Gavrielatos.
"The success of this funding model depends heavily on the response from state and territory governments," responded Independent Schools Council of Australia executive Bill Daniels.
