Education Minister Simon Birmingham has been a passionate advocate for a controversial US-style school voucher system that would likely encourage more families to exit the public school system.

The debate about school vouchers - in which students are allocated a set amount of funding that follows them to whichever school their parents enrol them in - is one of the most ideologically charged in education circles.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Supporters say vouchers empower low-income families and increase competition between schools while opponents say they lead to widening gaps between the public and private sectors.

In his maiden speech to Parliament in 2007, Senator Birmingham said a voucher system should be trialled, even if leads more parents to pull their children out of public schools. Politicians traditionally use their first speech to outline the beliefs that drove them into politics.