But to implement the A$14.5 billion ($17.8 billion) package she needs the agreement of hostile conservative state governments, who see little point in supporting the programme of an embattled Labor Prime Minister who looks not so much like a lame duck as a dead one.
With the Opposition hammering every other move she puts forward, major reform is becoming a forlorn hope, especially if she cannot bring independent MPs on board for any legislation required.
With the proposed education reforms, that is looking increasingly shaky.
Two independents, Rob Oakeshott from New South Wales and Tasmanian Andrew Wilkie, have expressed alarm. Oakeshott described the package as a "poison pill".
And hovering above Gillard is the continually darkening cloud of opinion polls predicting a landslide for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
Yesterday a Nielsen poll in Fairfax newspapers confirmed the ominous trend, reporting a Coalition lead of 57-43 per cent in the two-party preferred vote that decides Australian elections.
Abbott's lead over Gillard as preferred prime minister continued, opening to 50 per cent to 42 per cent.
Gillard needs desperately to win the education reforms: a flop would be crushing to a Government that is already losing its battle for credibility.
The package is based on a far-reaching report led by businessman David Gonski, which recommended sweeping changes to position education as a driving force of future national prosperity.
But while this is the closest Australia has come to real reform of its education system for decades, it has appeared not only against a background of a crumbling Administration, but also as Government revenues are hewed to the bone by the flow-on from global economic woes.
Next month's budget is shaping as a nightmare of cuts and compromises in which schooling will not escape.
Gillard's answer is to convince the states to contribute to a A$14.5 billion increase in overall funding over the next six years, while slicing A$2 billion from universities.
Western Australia and Queensland are already hostile, while NSW and Victoria have yet to announce their positions.
The Opposition is on the attack, the Greens want miners rather than the education sector itself to fund the package, and splits have opened between school and tertiary educators.
Education funding plan
States will get
* Extra A$14.5 billion for public, private schools over six years from 2014
* Federal Government to pay 65 per cent, or A$9.4 billion
* States to cover the rest
* Extra funding takes total public schools funding to A$49.5 billion a year
* Schools' funding to grow if better annual indexation rates agreed with states
* Federal government funding to rise 4.7 per cent a year if states grow education budgets by 3 per cent
By sector
* Public schools, A$12 billion
* Catholic schools, A$1.4 billion
* Independent, A$1 billion.
- AAP
