New funding model unclear: Scotch College head

The principal of Scotch College says it's impossible to tell if independent schools would be better or worse off under the proposed new funding model.

Alec O'Connell said he supported the Gonski report's principle of giving more support to disadvantaged students and it made sense to balance funding levels between State and Federal governments.

"But there is nothing in the whole report that tells somebody like me what it's going to mean - are we going to be better or worse off in terms of the amount of money we're going to get per student than we are now," Dr O'Connell said.

It was unclear how the new schooling resource standard would be determined. "If we don't maintain our funding in real term dollars, then the only source for schools to pay for that is from increased fees," he said.

"For independent schools, the main criterion is to make sure in real dollar terms that we don't lose any money in our funding model."

He said schools such as Scotch that self funded capital works should not be disadvantaged for trying to maintain infrastructure.