Prime Minister Julia Gillard sweetened the deal for Western Australia to support the Gonski plan by adding new funding for the state's schools. The announcement was made as part of her plan to rally the approval of holdout states for school reforms with the deadline just two weeks away.

The initial offer of Federal Labor was for $300 million to go to school funds in Western Australia. However, more work was done on the figures after Western Australia questioned the high cost of providing education compared to other states.

In an interview with Perth reporters, Ms Gillard told the press that she was prepared to increase her original offer of funding while considering the increased cost of education in Western Australia.

Her new offer would give West Australian schools $920 million in funds. The prime minister also said schools will also receive resources worth $2.8 billion with indexation.

The commonwealth will give 65% under the schools funding package, while the remaining 35 per cent will be provided by states and territories. Ms Gillard hopes that WA's Barnett will consider the offer of additional funding.

Only ACT and NSW have signed up to support the Labor Party's national school funding plan. The education plan aims to provide $14.5 billion worth of funds in six years for states and territories.

It is worth noting that teachers are paid more in Western Australia since schools can afford to pay them bigger salaries.

Mr Barnett acknowledged the offer, but he is no rush to sign up for Ms Gillard's revised plan. The new offer is a better one compared to the previous figure which he treated as an insult to Western Australian schools. Mr Barnett is still considering governance issues and does not like state schools reporting to Canberra.

The offer of additional school funding to Western Australia puts pressure on Queensland to sign up for the Gonski plan.