I was shocked by the quality of some of the state schools When education gurus visited schools to investigate funding needs, they were struck by the ageing, worn-down facilities at many of the government-run campuses. Gonski review member Kathryn Greiner recalls seeing run-down buildings, children sitting on cold concrete and educators struggling with inadequate resources. The teachers were doing the best they could. But it appeared someone had taken their finger off the pulse," she says. The state schools had very poor infrastructure. I was shocked by the quality of some of the state schools I saw all over the country. I just thought they've lost the plot - that state governments had not kept pace with the issues in their schools. The resulting plan to inject an extra $15.1 billion into schools across the nation over the next six years is now at the centre of the Rudd government's re-election pitch. After years of fierce political debate over whether there was a problem - and a messy process to sign up the various states - Labor is trumpeting itself as the only party that can be trusted to deliver extra funding where most needed. It was shaping up as a major point of difference with the Coalition, which had denied the existing funding system was broken and proposed an extension of current arrangements for at least a year or two. But on the eve of the election campaign, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott tried to neutralise school budgets as an issue by vowing to match the government's funding for the next four years while reining in federal intervention in schools. It was a pitch to avoid uncertainty and deliver extra cash without "strings attached." But the devil is in the detail - Labor has earmarked $10 billion over six years, but the bulk of this will arrive in the final two years. About $2.8 billion extra is budgeted in the first four years, but eroded by $2.1 billion in savings from ending targeted programs. According to talking points sent to Coalition MPs, funding beyond the four-year budget cycle was "mere conjecture" and the opposition would not be indulging in such unbelievable promises. Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne says money that is off-budget is "in the never never." Education Minister Bill Shorten says: "The Coalition's problem is they spent 1000 days bagging it and then on day 1001 they say you can trust us on education. They think people have got the memories of goldfish. Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos says the contrast is clear. "On one side there is a commitment to $10 billion [federal] funding in our schools targeted to areas of disadvantage with a requirement that states co-contribute and maintain effort and grow their education budget over a six-year period," he says. On the other side, we have a so-called commitment that represents less than one-third, $2.8 billion, without any long-term commitment to the Gonski funding model, without any requirement for states and territories to grow their budget and without any requirement that the money be allocated according to need. But the Greens' spokeswoman on school education, Penny Wright, warns the big cash increases slated for the later years may be at risk under either major party if revenue takes another hit. At the heart of the report by businessman David Gonski is a system of base funding for each student, to be topped up by "loadings" targeting categories of disadvantage such as disability, low-socio-economic background and school remoteness. The majority of the extra money will go to state schools, but independent and Catholic systems will also gain new cash - adjusted by parents' capacity to contribute through fees. The $15.1 billion needed over the next six years to bring schools towards the Schooling Resource Standard would be split, with the federal government covering two-thirds and the remaining third shouldered by states and territories. On top of this, the Commonwealth is committing to annual school funding increases of 4.7 per cent in return for the states growing their budgets by 3 per cent a year.