But the special promise has elicited anger in Labor's traditional public school constituency. In a letter to members and parents, Mr Spratt warned against "irrational and illogical policy in the scrabble for votes" and described Labor's $250 million pledge to Catholic schools as "arbitrary". "The audacity of this partisan move by the leader of the opposition has astonished many parents, families and staff teams of public schools, as it appears that a small number of Catholic Bishops now hold sway over national party politics and policy," he wrote to members, parents and MPs. "Funding must be based on true need and not that of entitled want; one can only hope that the Bishops' surplices can accommodate the fiscal gain from what is a spectacular special deal arranged just for them." Catholic schools claim they are being shortchanged $1.1 billion under Gonski 2.0 because they are transitioning to the new funding formula in six years, rather than the 10 afforded to independent schools. The Catholic school system was hardly "short of cash", Mr Spratt said, but it was public schools that were accommodating a growing proportion of new enrolments.

"The whole situation reminds me of Animal Farm - George Orwell's dystopian polemic where, after uniting to drive the humans off the farm, some of the farm's animals come to see themselves as being more equal than others; going on to secretly rewrite the agreed rules of the farm on the end of the barn wall to suit their own ends," Mr Spratt wrote. As the federal body of parents and citizens associations, ACSSO says it speaks for the families of 2.5 million children enrolled in Australian public schools. Mr Spratt, president since 2015, also sits on the Asia Education Foundation Advisory Board and was on the the steering committee of the Safe Schools Coalition. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Labor argues its promise to Catholic schools, revealed in a letter to Archbishop Hart, is nothing new because it simply represents the Catholics' share of its promise to restore the "full Gonski" funding ripped out by the Turnbull government in its so-called Gonski 2.0 model. A spokesman for Mr Shorten said all schools would be better off under Labor, which would "return every dollar that Turnbull has cut", including for Catholic and government schools.

"Public schools are copping 86 per cent of Turnbull’s cuts," the spokesman said. "Under Labor, the neediest schools will get the biggest funding increases, in the shortest time. Most of the neediest schools are public schools, so they will get by far the most funding." Mr Spratt told Fairfax Media Labor should wait for the National School Resourcing Board to review socio-economic status loadings before committing to any more "special deals". Unions have also been reluctant to endorse Labor's position. Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe told Fairfax Media on Monday: "We are waiting to see the full details of the ALP's school funding policy before commenting on individual components." The case for more money for Catholics chools has also gained traction within the Coalition. Former prime minister Tony Abbott dispensed some free advice to Education Minister Simon Birmingham on Monday, claiming Catholic schools would "suffer a big loss in funding" under the current model.