Education Minister Christopher Pyne concedes the federal government was forced into some "nimble footwork" to rule out imposing public school fees on rich parents, an option raised in its own discussion paper.
But Mr Pyne hopes the leaked document won't stop proper debate about the merits of all the ideas proposed in the federation green paper.
The paper has suggested four possible options for the future of school funding, including either the commonwealth withdrawing from the area completely or, conversely, wearing the full price tag for all schools.
The latter possibility was suggested in tandem with the idea that wealthier parents have to pay some of their children's education costs at public schools unless state and territory governments decide to top-up commonwealth funding.
Mr Pyne and Prime Minister Tony Abbott ruled out any possibility of the commonwealth forcing any parents to pay fees for public schools.
"I'm sorry it was leaked ... because it required the government to use nimble footwork yesterday to deal with one particular issue," Mr Pyne told the Committee for Economic Development of Australia in Canberra on Tuesday.
Federal ministers had to resist the temptation to micro-manage schools or interfere with the states' responsibilities too much, he said.
But the commonwealth wouldn't resile from its national leadership role in making sure all Australians got a quality education.
Mr Pyne didn't want to pre-empt the green paper process too much for fear of truncating discussion.
"Let's see where the discussion takes us," he said.
But Labor senator Doug Cameron said there was no point in wasting time discussing bad ideas.
"It's not about opposing ideas, it's about opposing bad ideas," he told reporters in Canberra.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Australia's education system would head towards a cliff if the federal government went ahead with cuts.
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