Labor has not settled on a figure for schools funding despite attacking the Turnbull government over its new deal.
Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek declined to say on Thursday whether the party was committed to restoring the $22 billion over 10 years it says the coalition has short-changed schools in its Gonski 2.0 deal.
"We will have to work out exactly what the figures are as the next election approaches," she told Sky News, adding that Labor would support cuts to 24 wealthy schools and reduced funding for 353 other schools as proposed by the government.
Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham was quick to seize on her comments.
"She has failed to confirm the Labor Party's $22 billion school promise," he told reporters in Canberra.
Earlier, while addressing the National Press Club in Canberra, Senator Birmingham insisted no school would receive any special funding deal from the commonwealth, no matter how much blackmailing or bullying goes on.
Senator Birmingham is adamant that, when it comes to the money he controls, every single school will be treated the same.
The federal government has unveiled a package that will ultimately increase federal money for schools from $17.5 billion in 2017 to $30.6 billion by 2027.
Twenty-seven different funding agreements entered into by the previous Labor government would be replaced with a single, national, sector-blind, needs-based funding model for public and private schools.
Senator Birmingham said the backlash to the announcement, especially threats from Catholic systems of massive fee increases or school closures, was just pushback from those hoping to achieve yet another special deal.
"Once you start to do one or two, you have to do three or four and eventually you are right back to where you started from with another maze and mess of special deals and sweetheart arrangements," he said
"The whole point of the reforms ... (is) to get away from the type of situation where every four or six years you have a school sector or a state government coming along, trying to blackmail or bully federal governments into doing something that suits them and gives them a competitive advantage."
Despite reports of unrest over the plans from the coalition backbench ahead of a budget day meeting next Tuesday, Senator Birmingham said he'd heard nothing but "praise and pleasure" from colleagues - a point echoed by the coalition's backbench education committee chair Bridget McKenzie.
Labor has criticised the government's plan as cutting $22 billion from schools because it doesn't increase funding at the same level the opposition would have had it won power.
"The schools know this is not good for them and if they're saying to us this is not good for them. Well I'm on the side of the school, the kids and the parents," Opposition Leader Bill Shorten told reporters at a Melbourne Catholic primary school.
"It's been estimated that the cut ... means there'll be 22,000 teachers less than there would have otherwise been if the government simply honoured previous Labor arrangements with the states and with the Catholic education system."
