The Greens are calling on the NSW government to divert money promised to private schools to their public counterparts amid the Gonski school funding fallout.
The call comes off the back of a meeting between federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne and state and territory education ministers, which followed the federal government's decision to renege on agreements entered into with the previous Labor administration.
Greens NSW state MP John Kaye says the state's first priority should be ensuring public schools get what they were promised.
He said the state should abandon its commitment for an extra $116 million to non-government schools between 2015 and 2017.
"For every dollar that the federal government fails to deliver to NSW public schools, (NSW Education Minister) Adrian Piccoli should take a dollar out of the state's $116 million funding boost to the non-government sector, starting with the wealthiest private schools," he said in a statement.
If that is not enough to maintain the total promised under Gonski agreements, NSW should dip into its base funding for the non-government school sector, Mr Kaye added.
Mr Pyne revealed this week the coalition government would only honour one year of the school funding agreements, and allocate a further $230 million in 2014 to states that did no sign up to the scheme, dubbed "Gonski".
The coalition's backflip has enraged the states and territories that signed up to the scheme.
Mr Kaye said public schools should not suffer from Mr Pyne's broken promise.
"Nor should Adrian Piccoli let private school lobbying enrich the non-government sector at the expense of public education," he said.
Comment has been sought from Mr Piccoli.
Mr Pyne told ABC radio on Saturday that money was not the answer for every problem in education.
"If you have a per student breakdown, independent schools have the most funding attracted to them," he said.
"Government schools have the second highest amount of spending per student and Catholic schools come third with lowest rate of spending per student.
"But Catholic students are getting the best results ... Money again is not the answer for every problem in education."
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