The Turnbull government could face a battle with the Senate, as well as a stoush with the states and territories, as it seeks to replace Labor's Gonski agreements with a new school funding model from 2018.

School funding negotiations got off to a heated start on Friday with state ministers accusing the federal government of blindsiding them by releasing its funding analysis to the media before giving it to them.

State ministers from both sides of politics said they were angry at the way the process had been handled, a charge dismissed as "political chest-beating" by federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham.

"We're back to the bad old days, where we will be fighting regularly over school funding," NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said after the meeting in Adelaide.