CHURCH leaders have distanced themselves from an extraordinary public rejection of Labor's schools funding policy by four of the nation's most senior Catholic and Anglican archbishops.
The archbishops of both denominations in Melbourne and Sydney released a statement on Tuesday in which they described Labor's plan to redirect funding from wealthy private schools to struggling Catholic and independent schools as "potentially divisive".
The statement, at first believed to carry the authority of the churches, was seen as a major blow to Labor's election pitch.
But Primate of the Anglican Church Peter Carnley said yesterday the statement did not reflect the views of his church.
"I think the only national position we can articulate at the moment is that those positions are in fact personal positions and they are not a national position," Dr Carnley said.
Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane John Bathersby agreed, adding that the statement was unfair because it had only focused on Labor's schools funding policy.
"I believe that constructive criticism of policy is warranted provided it applies to all policies and is even handed and fair," Archbishop Bathersby told ABC Radio.
"I don't think it's only one policy that's flawed – I think that if we are constructive in the matter I think we'd find flaws in both sides of an education policy."
But federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson said the views expressed by the four archbishops reflected those held by many parents who were wary of Labor's plan to punish them for the financial sacrifice of sending their children to private schools.
"This is quite a divisive policy which Labor has put forward, and the mechanism for redistributing the funds within the non-government sector is extremely unclear," Dr Nelson said.
Opposition education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said Labor's policy simply proposed returning rich schools to the same level of funding they received three years ago.
Ms Macklin said that while the four archbishops who spoke out against the policy were entitled to their opinions, the Catholic Education Commission had welcomed Labor's approach.
"They recognise that is important to direct the funding to where it is most needed, they say themselves that it is a fair approach that is being taken by Labor and that there are many, many Catholic schools that are in dire need of money," Ms Macklin said.
"Labor is going to fund all schools according to their needs. We've set a national school resource standard, and we want to lift all of those schools – whether they're Catholic schools, Anglican schools, Jewish schools – we want to lift all of those schools up to the national standard."
Anglican welfare agency the Brotherhood of St Laurence reiterated its support for Labor's needs-based approach to schools funding.
Social policy co-ordinator Stephen Ziguras said Labor's funding model would improve the chances for more children to get a high-quality education through the public education system.