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Across the government and non-government school divide yesterday there was disappointment that the time frame for the implementation of a new funding system - which allocates all Australian students a base resource and tops it up according to need - will stretch out to two more terms of government.

But ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher yesterday threw unqualified support behind federal Labor's agenda, saying the ACT government would ''accept the challenge'' to introduce the reforms and share part of the $6.5 billion cost.

ACT Opposition Leader Zed Seselja said he would enter into negotiations with the Commonwealth but was not about to sign a blank cheque.

''It's the Commonwealth's responsibility to spell out exactly how this will affect Canberra schools,'' he said.

Macquarie Primary School principal Wendy Cave said Australia should be both pleased and patient with yesterday's government Gonski response.

''This is really complex stuff. If it was straightforward it would have been done a long time ago,'' Ms Cave said.

''I was really happy to hear the Prime Minister's acknowledgement that investment in education should be a national priority. But the challenge is to predict what sort of political and economic pressure Australia will face in six years' time.''

At Burgmann Anglican School, principal Steven Bowers said the agenda set by Ms Gillard was ''welcome and pleasing'' but lacked detail.

''We have been waiting for the detail, and we will need to wait while it is worked through,'' Mr Bowers said.

The best thing to come out of the commitment to the Gonski reforms would be an end to the divisions between government and non-government schools, according to Mr Bowers. ''Students would be funded according to need and the issue of whether they were attending a government or non-government school would be a moot point,'' he said.

Ms Gallagher praised Prime Minister Julia Gillard for her pledge to propel Australian students into the top five in the world by 2025.

She said it was ''impossible to put a dollar figure on it at the moment'' in terms of how much more funding the ACT would need to contribute under the new deal ''other than to say all our new spending in education will go to making sure it is contributing to a fairer funding arrangement''.

''We think a fairer funding model for all students is really important. This gets rid of the public-private divide and makes education funding a matter of resourcing each child to meet their full potential,'' Ms Gallagher said.

Parents at ACT schools were also optimistic yesterday, although the non-government parents' body, the Association of Parents and Friends of ACT Schools, said non-government school communities would continue to be uneasy about the potential for reforms to impact on fees. President George Gamkrelidze said until parents saw figures that showed how much funding their schools were going to get they would be nervous - despite reassurances from Ms Gillard that all schools would receive more money.

''The critical part for parents is the lack of certainty about how the new system will work, and it looks like that certainty is still a way off while the detail is worked out,'' he said.

ACT Council of Parents and Citizens president Vic Pearce said, ''The devil is in the detail of implementation, we are hoping the bill will keep true to the spirit of Gonski's recommendations.''

Ms Pearce also said the time frame of six years was disappointing to all.

''Our students and schools are waiting,'' she said.

Of Ms Gillard's call for higher entry standards for university teacher recruits - requiring them to be in the top 30 per cent for literacy and numeracy results - University of Canberra Dean of Education Professor Geoffrey Riordan said such reforms could lead to better classroom standards. But he noted they were at odds with separate Commonwealth reforms to deregulate university access, which encouraged universities to lower their cut-offs.