The Federal Government has said it is aiming to end the "school funding wars" with a new 10-year plan, but it will again have to rely on the Senate to put it in place.

Key points: New plan would legislate federal government funding for schools instead of state and territories

New plan would legislate federal government funding for schools instead of state and territories Greens won't rule out support for the plan, hoping it could end the political tug-of-war

Greens won't rule out support for the plan, hoping it could end the political tug-of-war NCEC says the Government modelled the plan without consulting any of the sectors

The Commonwealth is planning to spend an extra $18.6 billion on education over the next decade as it seeks to remodel the needs-based funding system first introduced by Labor.

It plans to legislate Commonwealth funding for schools instead of relying on a series of agreements with the states and territories and independent school sectors.

"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.

But the Government's approach presents the obvious challenge of getting the legislation through the Senate, before the current funding arrangements expire at the end of this year.

Labor attacked the plan as a $22-billion cut from its original proposal, and most crossbench senators said they wanted much more detail before commenting.

But the Greens did not rule out support in the hope of giving schools long-term certainty.

"People are sick of the argy-bargy between the states and the Federal Government, they're sick of the hyper-partisan fights between the Government and the Opposition, we've got to get the politics out of this," Greens education spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young told AM.

She said the Greens would examine the detail of the plan closely, and wanted to see funding increased for public education.

"We want more funding for the schools that need it, we want to look after our kids and give them certainty, and for those schools that have been getting off with being over-funded for far too long, they need to be reined in," Senator Hanson-Young said.

The Government's plan will see 24 independent schools in the eastern states suffer a direct funding cut over the next decade, and a further 353 will not receive as much money as previously forecast.

Just over 9,000 schools will be better off over the decade.

'Ambitious' plan made without consulting sectors: NCEC

Some independent school representatives have cautiously welcomed the plan, but the National Catholic Education Commission said its schools were being unfairly targeted.

"At a principled level we think greater consistency across the country is desirable and a worthy aim, but the Commonwealth has done its modelling and developed its proposal without any consultation or meaningful engagement with any of the sectors, and particularly the Catholic sector," NCEC acting executive director Danielle Cronin said.

She also questioned whether the legislation would pass Parliament this year, labelling the plan "ambitious".

"We've been told that if the Senate doesn't agree then the Government is looking at alternative options and one of these is to roll over existing funding arrangements for a further year, we certainly wouldn't be opposed to that," Ms Cronin said.

The Catholic education director for the archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, Ross Fox, said some schools may be forced to close and the change would mean a funding freeze for 29 Catholic schools in the ACT.

"For us there's very few options," Mr Fox said.

"Really we've got to increase fees, we're going to have to shut schools, we're going to have to reduce the quality of education we provide to students.

"There's really only those three options."

Government's pat on the back could be gratuitous

The Grattan Institute's school education program director Pete Goss described the deal as a "pretty big turnaround", saying the Coalition had adopted a long-term, needs-based funding model and outlined exactly how much money the Commonwealth would provide to schools.

He congratulated the minister for staring down the conservatives in the Coalition, who would oppose the extra spending, and taking on the powerful Catholic and private school sectors that stand to lose the most from the deal.

"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."

But the Centre for Independent Studies questioned whether the Government's plan was that much of a departure from Labor's existing funding model.

Education policy analyst Blaise Joseph said the Government had not been that courageous in cutting funding to some schools.

"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," Mr Joseph said.

"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."