Less than four years after David Gonski handed down his landmark review, the heated and complicated issue of how we fund our schools is again up for debate.

And not just that. So is the question of whether all parents - even if they are relatively rich - have a right to send their kids to public school for free. Barbecue stoppers don't come much better than that.

In case you've missed it, the Abbott government is conducting a major review into Australia's federal-state relations. It's a pet project of the Prime Minister, who focused on federation reform in his book Battlelines and whose department is running the review.