'Hypocrite' states cut school cash: feds

The federal government is frustrated some states and territories have been cutting their spending on schools while the commonwealth is handing over record levels of cash.

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham is in the midst of negotiating a new funding deal with the states and territories to begin in 2018.

He says new figures released by the Productivity Commission on Friday reveal the extent of cost shifting as the states rely more heavily on the commonwealth to fund schools.

The report on government services shows that between 2013/14 and 2014/15, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory cut their spending on schools in real terms.

In the same year, commonwealth funding across the board increased by more than $1 billion, or 7.5 per cent.

"Australian families, teachers and students are being misled by some state and territory leaders who say they're for more funding but hypocritically fail to live up to their own lofty rhetoric," Senator Birmingham said.

He took particular aim at the Labor government in his home state of South Australia, which is a full signatory to the Gonski model.

Under that funding deal, struck by the Gillard-Rudd government, states were supposed to commit to increase their own funding every year as well as tell the commonwealth how they would boost results at each school.

However, most of the safeguards were scrapped or ignored by previous federal minister Christopher Pyne, who derided them as "Canberra command and control" measures.

The national average spending, from all government sources, was $15,249 per public primary school student, $18,960 per public high school student and $9843 per private school student.

Primary schools across the country enjoyed a 93 per cent attendance rate, while in high school attendance dropped from 93 per cent in Year 7 to 89.6 per cent in Year 10 - figures largely unchanged over the past few years.