Premier Colin Barnett has slammed the federal government over the Gonski review of school funding, saying it's an attempt by the commonwealth to take over state-run schools.
Mr Barnett told reporters there was some merit in parts of the review, released yesterday.
But he pointed out that 70 per cent of students in WA went to state government schools that were 90 per cent funded by the WA government, and only 10 per cent by the commonwealth.
The other 30 per cent of WA children went to Catholic, independent and private schools which overall received 40 per cent of their funding from the commonwealth, 40 per cent from parents and 20 per cent from the WA government.
"This is the commonwealth trying to say we want your money, we want to pool it and we now want to administer state government schools," Mr Barnett said.
"Sorry, ain't gonna happen," he said.
"This is a repeat of the attempt to take over the mining industry. It's a repeat to try to take over our public hospitals.
"Why would you trust education in the commonwealth hands when they can even decide who should be prime minister?" Mr Barnett said.
