The federal education minister has lashed out at "the gall" of state governments complaining about a school funding crisis.
But unions have hit back, saying Simon Birmingham should stop playing politics and start backing Gonski reforms.
The minister on Tuesday delivered an extraordinary defence of the government's policy plans not to commit to the final two years of the needs-based funding model.
He argued the share of federal funding was at an historic high and the Commonwealth had been doing the heavy lifting with its spending growing twice as fast as the states over a decade.
"Yet some states still have the gall to say there's a funding crisis. If there is, then the blame rests comfortably on their heads," he told an independent schools conference in Canberra on Tuesday.
Senator Birmingham said states should not be let off the hook for what was their ultimate responsibility.
"This is especially the case for those states who scream loudest for more money, yet invest the least themselves."
Any future plans must clarify that responsibility burden but also be an affordable policy.
The minister also said there were limits to how much schools could reverse disadvantage caused by a child's upbringing.
The Australian Education Union said it was a "bit rich" for the minister to complain about states when the federal government tried to stop agreements that needed co-investment from the states.
"We don't need partisan politicking by minister Birmingham," president Correna Haythorpe said.
The union said the minister had not even explained the detail of what would happen to schools funding beyond 2017.
It believes the plan to tie schools funding to the inflation rate would mean schools will not be funded by need.
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