The Federal Government has unveiled plans for ‘Gonski 2.0’, a re-jig of recent school funding models.

The Commonwealth says it will spend an extra $18.6 billion on education for the next decade, in a similar way to that proposed by the needs-based funding system first introduced under a previous government.

A large part of the change will be finding ways to subvert the current deals with the states, territories and independent schools.

The new plan will legislate funding for schools on the federal government level, removing choice from states and territories.

Additionally, businessperson David Gonski, who conducted the former Labor government's review of education, has been called in to undertake another review.

“What we're committing to do is ensure that we actually fix all those different deals and transition over a 10-year period that sees money there, each and every year into the future, to get every school onto a fair, needs-based formula that is truly sector-blind, that is truly fair to every single state and territory in treating them the same way,” Education Minister Simon Birmingham said.

While the plan does include some new money, the Opposition is describing it as a $22-billion cut from its original proposal.

Senator Birmingham’s plan will lift school funding to $30.6 billion in 2027, while figures put forth by Labor in response to cuts in the 2014 budget showed school funding would have been about $31 billion in 2025.

The $22 billion cut that Labor describes comes from the projected gap between the Coalition and Labor plans over the decade from 2018 to 2027, wherein the former will spend $242.3 billion, and the latter $264.3 billion.

Initial investigations suggest the Government's plan will see a direct funding cut for 24 independent schools in the eastern states over the next decade, while up to 353 more will see less money than previously forecast.

Over the same decade, more than 9,000 schools are expected to be better off.

The Grattan Institute's school education program director Pete Goss congratulated Senator Birmingham for staring down conservatives within the Coalition who opposed the extra spending.

“The core principles that have been put out today at first blush, seem like they're exactly the right ones,” Mr Goss said.

“Some of the tough decisions that've previously been squibbed have been taken and Minister Birmingham should be commended for that.”

The Centre for Independent Studies says the Government's plan is hard to distinguish from Labor's existing funding model.

“It does appear to be a bit of a distraction from what are the more fundamental underlying issues with the current school funding model, which is that it's not based on evidence and that the school funding benchmark is simply too high,” education policy analyst Blaise Joseph.

“The Government appears to be focusing on the apparently easier task of picking on a few schools which probably are overfunded but it's only a very small amount of the overall school budget.”

New South Wales' Education Minister Rob Stokes says he is “very concerned” at the Government’s attempts to end what it calls “the school funding wars”.

“We don't have a war with the Federal Government, we have an agreement with the Federal Government,” Mr Stokes said.

“This funding announcement does not provide that clarity and I am very concerned this may lead to a lessening of the funding that the Federal Government has already committed to provide to schools in New South Wales.”

Queensland Education Minister Kate Jones welcomed the announcement, but questioned the proposed timeline.

“This funding bonanza that they are trying to paint today really doesn't kick in until the out-years [beyond the budgeted year],” she said.

“I welcome the announcement today that they are going to put in more funding to schools … but it won't flow to classrooms for at least another five years - the concern is though that all of this funding is in the out-years.

“It's a 10-year agreement where the bulk of the money will be flowing to the states in the out-years.

“What I'm concerned about that is the Turnbull Government - after promising at the last election that they wouldn't walk away from the Gonski funding model - did.

“They tore up the six-year agreement and now they are saying we should trust them on a 10-year agreement.”

Victorian Education Minister James Merlino said the “devil was in the detail”, and called for the Government to be more specific about what it would give the state.

South Australian Education Minister Susan Close said it was good to be heading back to the old plan.

“We've campaigned long and hard for the federal government to abandon its cuts to Gonski education funding,” she said.

“Today's announcement was made with scant detail.

“We will seek further information so we can assess the full implications of this announcement for schools and students.”

West Australian Education Minister Sue Ellery wants more detail too.

“This is a 10-year commitment, so if the Federal Government has loaded most of the funding in the back years we would be concerned,” she said.

“We do not yet know the allocation year by year and I would want to know that Western Australia will be better off.

“In respect to the Gonski review schools need certainty about how they are going to be funded and there has been a huge amount of review and reform in the sector already.”