That was strikingly demonstrated just down the road from Canberra on Friday, July 13, 1962 when six Goulburn Catholic schools closed their doors in protest over a funding dispute.

Some 2000 students were directed to enrol in the government school system the following Monday. There was only space for 640 and lots had to be drawn.

While what came to be known as the Goulburn Schools Strike only lasted a week, its impact has reverberated down the decades.

It is a constant reminder it is fallacious to presume any funding win for the Catholic and the independent school system is a loss for the public system and vice versa.

Australia's public and private school systems do not exist in isolation from each other. Every child whose parents currently exercise their right to send them to a non-government school, whether it be Geelong Grammar or Our Lady of Mercy Preparatory, is entitled to attend a public school.

There has been concern that as a result of the earlier decision to cut $2 billion from Catholic education Catholic schools would have to put up their fees, driving many children into the public system.

If that had occurred it would almost certainly have cost taxpayers far more than what the then education minister, Simon Birmingham, hoped to save.

About 20 per cent of all Australian students attend Catholic schools. There is no way state education systems could cope on their current levels of funding if even five or 10 per cent of these were to transition to public schools.

Given additional campuses, and upgraded infrastructure at existing schools, would almost certainly be required, costs would likely have been much more than the $5.5 billion funding boost - $4.3 billion for Catholic schools and $1.2 billion for independent schools over the next decade - announced on Thursday.

Federal funding for public schools will lincrease by $6.4 billion over the same 10-year period.

Economically it makes far better sense to provide parents with affordable choices than to drive unwilling participants into a "one size fits all" state-based education model which would require significant tweaking to cope with the additional demands.

Given much of the opposition to public funding for private schools is ideological, it is necessary to look beyond the political agendas to what is best for a community that has long been accustomed to choice and diversity in the education sector.

Parents choose non-government schools, including Catholic ones, for many different reasons. These can include the perception, in some areas, of higher teaching standards; the desirability of values-based education and, of course, religious orientation.

These are their choices to make. The real danger the Morrison government must face in the wake of what has admittedly been a pragmatic decision to clear as many barnacles as possible before the next election is a return to the patchwork-quilt education funding practices of previous decades.

As always, the greatest challenge is to ensure all schools, whether they be public or private, have sufficient funding to meet the needs of their students.

We still seem to be some way away from that.