Education funding is shaping up as a key election issue, with Treasurer Scott Morrison saying the federal government's promise of an extra $1.2 billion for schools is "real money" that will be paid for by savings in other areas.
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But shadow treasurer Chris Bowen says the funding increase in 2018, 2019 and 2020, which is tied to new literacy and numeracy checks for children starting school, is "pathetically inadequate".
The Australian Education Union criticised the funding as a "quick fix" that will leave some students without the individual classroom support they need.
The government's $1.2 billion school funding increase is a little more than a quarter of the $4.5 billion Labor has promised to spend, in line with the recommendations of the Gonski school funding reforms, and sets up a fight in the election campaign over the issue.
Mr Morrison said the additional $1.2 billion, and another $118 million to support disabled children in schools, would help ensure children did better in core subjects such as maths and English, and unlike Labor's plan, it was fully funded.
"It's all paid for. It's all real money. It's all money that Australian families can rely on because we have done the work to be able to pay for it ... our education expenditure will increase by more than 25 per cent over the budget and forward estimates and will come close to $20 billion at the end of that period," he told the Nine Network.
"What they are promising is an unfunded plan over the longer period of time. What I'm saying is we will spend the money that is affordable.
"I'm a keen believer in the public education system. We have got to make sure that the teacher quality is there to support our children."
The government has also flagged literacy and numeracy testing for students in their first year of school to allow early identification of learning problems, and teacher pay rises linked to set standards being met, rather than length of service.
Labor plans to pay for the additional $4.5 billion in school funding it has promised by increasing tobacco taxes.
Mr Bowen told the ABC: "This is the government which promised before the last election to match Labor dollar for dollar and [which] cut $30 billion out of education. This is a PM who just a couple of weeks ago argued the federal government should withdraw entirely from funding public schools but continue funding private schools."
Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe said the government's announcement was a "quick fix designed to get the Coalition through an election campaign" and would leave schools more than $3 billion short of the full needs-based Gonski funding.
"Malcolm Turnbull has confirmed today he doesn't support Gonski, won't deliver Gonski and his only alternative plan is a pre-election fix which will ensure more students are left behind," Ms Haythorpe said.
She said the government's policy meant "not all students will get the individual support in the classroom they need".
The changes to teacher remuneration were "a distraction" from the funding shortfall, she said, but "cash-for-grades schemes ... have been discredited overseas".
It is understood the government's proposed pay changes do not hinge on outcomes being reached, such as a certain level of student grades, but on assessment of teaching standards.
Victorian Education Minister James Merlino accused the Coalition of being obsessed with performance pay for teachers, despite there being no evidence it made any difference to student outcomes.
"The way to improve the quality of teaching is for our teachers to work collaboratively to be engaged in team teaching, coaching, peer review and assessment," he said.
"This idea of pitting teachers against each other simply doesn't work, so we are not interested at all in performance pay."
Mr Merlino also accused the Turnbull government of attempting to spin its way out of the fact that it was walking away from its funding obligations to the states.
"This is a slight increase in indexation of funding. What they have put on the table today is $1.2 billion across the country and over three years. What it will mean is that in terms of the Gonski agreement ... state government schools will be hundreds of millions of dollars worse off."
Mr Morrison also confirmed health funding would receive an additional $2.9 billion, that Tuesday's federal budget would crack down on superannuation tax concessions available to the wealthy, and that there would be new measures targeting multinational tax avoidance.
He played down suggestions the budget would be jammed with election sweeteners.
"This budget is about an economic plan. It is not a typical budget ... it is a budget that has to be responsible and focussed on the economic plan that the country needs," Mr Morrison said.
The Treasurer said "continued discipline" would lead to the federal deficit being reduced over time.
Mr Morrison would not comment on "speculation" the budget would deliver a small tax cut to offset bracket creep, which pushes taxpayers into higher tax bands as their wages rise with inflation, for people earning more than $80,000.
But Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told Sky News on Sunday the government was "committed to doing as much as we can sensibly afford to ensure the average wage earner doesn't move into the ... second highest tax bracket".
It is estimated that 300,000 middle-income earners will be forced into the second highest tax bracket, above $80,000, because of wage inflation.
