Labor is set to pick the brains of parents, teachers, principal and academics about how to get best value for money from school funding.
A national schools forum will be held in Melbourne on Monday, as the Turnbull government awaits a report from consultant David Gonski and his panel, due in March 2018.
The Gonski 2.0 report will advise on how to improve school performance and student achievement using the revised school funding package to start from January 1.
Labor has pledged to restore $17 billion, which it says has been cut from schools by the coalition.
"Under the Liberals, there is not only much less money for schools, there's no plan to improve them either - not one more kid graduating high school, no improvement in literacy and numeracy, or teaching quality," Labor education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said.
There was also no national agreement in place for school funding or reform, she said.
"This is a complete failure of leadership. That's why we're holding this national schools forum. We need to ensure Australia has a world class school education system, where a child's postcode does not determine their future."
The forum will include addresses from Labor leader Bill Shorten and input from the national primary and secondary schools principals associations, Australian Council for Educational Research, Australian Education Union and independent school representatives.
