Parents, teachers on school bus for change

Public school teachers and parents will jump on a school bus on Monday to campaign for better funding for the sector.

They will begin in Brisbane and hold forums with parents and teachers in Queensland, NSW, the ACT and Victoria during the next fortnight.

The group also intends to meet federal Schools Minister Peter Garrett.

The tour, supported by the Australian Education Union (AEU) and the Australian Council of State School Organisations (ACSSO), starts as the union releases a poll showing a strong desire for change to the funding system.

Three in four of the 4129 people who responded to the online poll conducted by QDOS in late January said public schools were under-resourced but doing a fantastic job.

Some 70 per cent believed government funding for private schools should be means-tested to take into account income from fees and existing assets.

A quarter said if the federal government made more money available for schools, it should be shared evenly between public and private sectors.

But 70 per cent said most or all the funds should go to public schools.

The poll and school bus tour come just weeks ahead of the expected release of the independent schools funding review led by businessman David Gonski.

AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said there was a groundswell of public support for an overhaul of the funding system.

"This is a once in a generation chance to get school funding right and put in place fairer arrangements for our future," he said in a statement on Monday.

"We need to replace the current system that is broken and is making it harder to ensure that every child can get a great education."

The ACSSO is calling on the government to inject an extra $10 billion a year into public schools.

President Peter Garrigan said at least $1.4 billion should be spent on programs targeted at disadvantaged students - about 80 per cent of whom attend public schools.

"Parents should not be expected to raise funds to cover such things as electricity or water bills, chemicals in science labs and repairs to crumbling classroom blocks," he said in a statement.

"Thousands of public school parents around the country have written about the appalling state of their local schools as part of the Gonski funding review into public education."

The Gonski review took 18 months to complete and received more than 7000 submissions.

It was given to Mr Garrett before Christmas.