The Federal Government has released the Gonski review on school funding but has not committed any new money to education.

The report, authored by businessman and academic David Gonski, has found the current school funding arrangements are complex, confusing and have obscure goals.

The Government commissioned Mr Gonski to lead the wide-ranging Review of Funding for Schooling almost two years ago.

It is the first of its kind in 30 years and seeks to address disadvantage and find a sustainable funding model for Australian schools for beyond 2013.

The report recommends introducing a Schooling Resource Standard involving a base dollar amount for every student, estimated at what it would currently cost 80 per cent of students to achieve above the national minimum standard in reading and numeracy.

On top of the base rate for individual students, there would be loading to address factors such as disability, low socio-economic background, remoteness and school size.

The review panel says an extra $5 billion would have been needed to implement the changes based on 2009 figures.

But the Federal Government says it does not envisage a significant expansion of its funding role.

The Government is planning to take the reform proposals to the states and territories and set up a new reference group to discuss how to implement the review.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the recommendation for $5 billion extra is the amount that would be required from all levels of government.

She says she wants to work through the report's detail before funding any of its recommendations.

"I'm not going to make financial commitments for forthcoming government budgets until we've done all of that work," she said.

"Now of course we want to work through all of the details, all of the current information we want to work through with our state colleagues because this report represents a challenge to all of us."

'Can't afford to wait'

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The Australian Secondary Principals Association has described the review as intelligent and comprehensive.

President Sheree Vertigan says she is glad no immediate government funding commitment has been made.

"It will take time to look at how much money needs to be added to the education budget," she said.

"The $5 billion budget that Mr Gonski spoke about, he said himself that it is just an estimate, and I think we need to be really careful that we don't lock ourselves into an amount that is not enough to deal with the issues."

But Australian Education Union president Angelo Gavrielatos says the Government has to immediately commit to increased funding to improve the education system.

"We can't afford to wait any longer. We need a timetable of legislation this year. We need a commitment to introduce the new funding system and that injection of funding as soon as possible," he said.

'Hit list'

A new website for public feedback is to be launched today.

The report also recommends non-government school funding be based on the capacity of parents to contribute to the school rather than the area the school is in.

Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne says private schools are now on a hit list because the Government has not committed to an indexation model.

"That represents a hit of $4.2 billion to non-government schools and any indexation that is less than the current model will mean a cut to non-government schools, that means higher school fees," he said.

Ms Gillard says there is no hit list.

But Ms Vertigan says the Gonski report indicates that it is not just more money that is needed.

"It's also about raising the quality of the profession and effective teaching and effective leadership, so there are a number of questions about what that will mean over and above the current national partnerships that exist," she said.