In the past four weeks, since Malcolm Turnbull made his famous about-turn on the Gonski school funding plan, the politics of education has been turned on its head.
We have been treated to the diverting spectacle of the Liberal Party, backed by private schools, singing the praises of Gonski, while many who have spent years campaigning for the reforms (anyone remember the "I Give a Gonski" slogan?) have turned around and condemned Turnbull's plan.
Indeed for those who take a cynical delight in the foibles of politics, nothing has been more rewardingly absurd than seeing the Labor Party and the teachers' union trying to turn white into black, as they condemn Turnbull's Gonski, while trying to uphold the virtues of their own.
Labor, in particular, has backed itself into a tight and painful corner as it steadfastly maintains it will not cut funding to private schools the way that Turnbull is. Can you believe it?
So as a service to the confused, here is an update on where school funding stands now.
First of all, let there be no doubt that Turnbull's backflip is real and that the Liberal's have embraced the full Gonski. Their plan is to introduce needs-based funding to all schools as was recommended in Labor's inquiry, chaired by David Gonski, which was completed in 2011.
So why do even some honest critics of the Turnbull Gonski plan have a problem?
Most of the objections come down to how long it will take to introduce full needs-based school funding, and how much pressure should be put on the states to uphold their end of the deal.
Ten-year plan
Turnbull will take 10 years to implement Gonski. Starting next year and up until 2027, he will bring all schools in line with Gonski needs-based funding. Over that period schools that are below will be brought up to the target and schools that are above will be brought down.
Labor would have down it quicker. Labor's original 2013 plan was to do it by 2019, with a rapid adjustment in the last two years. This would have focussed most of the cost increases in 2018 and 2019. And because of Julia Gillard's famous promise that no school would lose money, the private schools that were overfunded would have kept their money, only being slowly brought back into line.
Labor's plan was also not truly needs-based as they did different deals with various states and school authorities in a panicked attempt to wrap it up before the 2013 election.
Turnbull's plan gets marks for being genuinely needs-based in line with the original Gonski report. But some have called on him to introduce it faster. Peter Goss, the respected school funding expert from the Grattan Institute, is urging him to do it in six years.
The other problem – and a very real one – is the state and territory governments. They run public schools and are accountable for them. They also pay for most of their funding and nearly all of them don't currently reach the Gonski needs-based funding benchmark.
Under Turnbull's plan the Commonwealth will offer 20 per cent of public school funding at the recommended needs-based level. But unless the other governments (with the exception of WA and the ACT, which do pay their way) pay the remaining 80 per cent at the needs-based level then public schools will remain underfunded.
At the moment the federal government is only asking that states and territories at least maintain real levels of school funding. Others, including Goss, say it should go further and arm-twist them into paying more.
This is a genuine issue and one that Turnbull is likely to need an answer for. In the meantime a Senate committee will report on the legislation and the battle to pass it will begin next month.
