Last week, the Morrison Government announced an extra $3.2 billion over 10 years would be given to non-government schools between 2020 and 2029, with an extra $170.8 million available in 2019 “to give funding certainty”.

But one of the most contentious announcements was an extra $1.2 billion that some have described as a “slush fund”, which the government will distribute to schools to “address specific challenges”.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended the announcement and rejected suggestions the new fund would get Catholics off his back politically.

“I think that’s a pretty unkind and cynical way to look at it,” Mr Morrison told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

“(Right now) it’s going to help those Catholic schools to provide fee relief for kids from drought-affected areas so they don’t have to leave the school … so that sounds like a pretty good reason to do it to me.”

The Opposition was at first critical of the multi-billion dollar agreement with Catholic and independent schools, but is now claiming credit.

“We’ve won the money for the Catholic sector, now it’s the turn of the state schools to get properly looked after,” Labor Leader Bill Shorten told reporters in Gippsland on Friday.

But Mr Shorten dismissed the deal as a quick fix and vowed to fight for state school students to also get additional funding.

“(Mr Morrison’s) done a patch-up job to keep one group of people happy but he’s ignored all the other government school kids,” Mr Shorten told ABC radio.

The government was under pressure to provide increased cash for Catholic and independent schools after reducing funding, while Labor campaigned earlier this year on behalf of the sector.

But the Grattan Institute says the Morrison Government is giving Catholic schools 10 times the amount of money needed to maintain “affordable choice” for parents.

This is what’s going on.

WHY ARE SCHOOLS GETTING MORE MONEY?

Catholic schools have not been happy since the Gonski 2.0 reforms were delivered under Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership, which saw a small number of overfunded schools lose money and changed the way government funding was calculated.

The original Gonski model looked at Catholic schools as a group with differences only between states. In NSW, regardless of how wealthy its parents were, Catholic primary school parents were never expected to contribute more than 13.5 per cent of base funding per student or about $1400, according to The Conversation.

This allowed Catholic schools to get more government funding and to keep fees low, often in the range of $2000-$3500 even at the most highly advantaged schools. For an independent primary school in the same area, they would need to charge the parents of its students about $8000.

According to The Weekend Australian, the Catholic education system declared war on the government reforms and members of the National Catholic Education Commission voted last year to approve a campaign that would involve a grassroots, social and main-media blitz across the country.

Labor picked up on anger about the change ahead of the Batman by-election this year and appeared to promise Catholic schools $250 million in the first two years of a Labor government.

Now the new Morrison Government has gone even further, promising $4.6 billion more to both Catholic and other non-government schools. In particular $1.2 billion has been set aside to keep fees low at certain schools.

According to Fairfax, about $718 million of the $1.2 billion is expected to go to inner-city Catholic primary schools particularly in Sydney’s north shore and Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, where government funding will drop.

BUT CAN THEY AFFORD IT?

Analysis shows parents at advantaged Catholic schools can afford to pay their own way.

According to The Conversation, there are just over 1,200 Catholic primary schools across Australia. In 2016, all of them had fees below $4,000.

Only about 160 of these schools (about 12 per cent) would need increase fess by at least $2,500 to compensate for the drop in government funding once the new model is introduced, which will calculate a school’s socioeconomic status based on the incomes of parents at the school.

Most Catholic primary schools — more than 800 (about 60 per cent) — would need only minimal fee increases or will actually get more government funding.

Some schools may have to increase fees by $4000 or more but only about 36 schools (0.03 per cent) would need to do this, and this is because parents can afford it.

According to the Grattan Institute, the median income of families in these schools was more than $200,000. Just one in 100 of their students had a socioeconomic status that was below average.

NEW FUNDING IS 10 TIMES WHAT THEY NEED

Grattan school education program director Peter Goss told Fairfax Catholic primary schools could "easily afford" to keep fees low for less advantaged families.

Instead of the government subsidising fees for all students, Dr Goss said Catholic schools could just keep fees low for the families who don’t earn as much.

It would cost only about $3 million – $4 million a year to do this and schools could cover this themselves.

“Catholic schools could keep fees low just for the families who aren’t advantaged — for less than a tenth of the price (of the government subsiding fees for all students),” Dr Goss said.

He said the Morrison Government's argument that extra money was necessary to ensure "affordable choice" for parents was misleading.

"Affordable choice is not the same thing as low-fee," he said. "What's affordable to a family on $300,000 is very different to what a family on $60,000 can afford."

WHAT ABOUT PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

The National Catholic Education Commission’s Ray Collins said the increased funding would save faith-based schools from increasing fees or shutting down altogether.

“Families can only have school choice if there is an affordable alternative to free, comprehensive government schools,” Mr Collins said.

But NSW Education Minister and Liberal MP Rob Stokes has argued the federal government’s $4.6 billion proposal would spell a return to the bad old days of the funding wars.

“Quite simply, I won’t be signing any deal that doesn’t treat every student and every school with fairness,” the Liberal minister said in a statement.

“The Gonski principles provide that school funding should be needs based and sector blind and these are the principles we hold dear.

“We don’t want a return to the school funding wars of the past that pitted private schools against public schools and urge the federal government to provide equal treatment for all schools, public and private.”

Former NSW education minister Adrian Piccoli said: “This is pathetic. There is nothing fair about it. There is nothing Christian about it. It’s throwing money at the powerful and well connected.”

Mr Piccoli subsequently tweeted Mr Morrison’s press release on the deal and stated: “So, tell us more about the $1.2b slush fund you are setting up only for Catholic and independent schools.”

NSW Teachers Federation president Maurie Mulheron is outraged.

“This is the most corrupt schools funding deal that any Australian government has ever announced. It totally ignores student need and does not deliver one cent to public schools,” Mr Mulheron said in a Teachers Federation tweet.

Victorian Education Minister and Labor MP James Merlino is also filthy about the deal, saying it was unacceptable for non-government schools to be funded at a higher level.

“We won’t sign up to any agreement until this inequality is addressed. We want a fair deal and equality for all kids. This is one mess that is still far from fixed,” Mr Merlino tweeted.

Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said the prime minister had turned his back on 2.5 million children who attend state schools.

“For parents to have genuine choice in the education of their children, they need a well-funded public school system to turn to if they wish,” Ms Plibersek told reporters.

The Prime Minister believes the states will warm to the $4.6 billion peace deal and is confident Mr Stokes will support it.

“I don’t think Rob’s yet had the chance to really look at the full details of this,” Mr Morrison told ABC radio.

“I’m sure once he sees that, he’ll see those comments don’t weigh up with what we’ve actually announced.”

He said there would be there will be no impact on state school funding arrangements and repeated Education Minister Dan Tehan’s comments in parliament that funding for government schools is at record levels.

“We’re stepping up when it comes to supporting state schools, we’re stepping up when it comes to supporting non-state schools,” he said.

Mr Tehan on Thursday said federal funding to public schools was going from $6.8 billion last year to $7.3 billion this year and $7.9 billion the following year.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann also pointed out the federal government does not require the support of the states to increase funding to the Catholic and independent schools sector.

— With AAP