Malcolm Turnbull is facing one of his most difficult and potentially dangerous tests since seizing the prime ministership, with one premier accusing him of treating the states like badly-behaved children and another slamming his offer of extra health funding as "pathetic".

Mr Turnbull is on Friday expected to offer the states around $3 billion in extra short-term funding for hospitals, but no extra money for schools. Mr Turnbull is pushing for the states to be be able to raise a proportion of income tax for the first time since World War II, a move he says would allow them to take full responsibility for public schools.

Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett has enthusiastically embraced Mr Turnbull's proposals but Labor premiers and Tasmania's Liberal premier have poured cold water on the ideas.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said: "I just don't think this is anywhere near the plan the Prime Minister would have us believe.

"I think it is a tactic to have us look at whether the states are acting responsibly - this sort of paternalistic stuff about whether we are all well behaved children.

"It is much more serious than that."

Mr Andrews accused Mr Turnbull of an ambush on federation reform, saying he first learnt of his income tax proposal on the front page of a newspaper.

"I won't have a situation where the Prime Minister conveniently steps away from state schools when he is facing years five and six of Gonski," he said.

"This is like skipping the bill, doing a runner: I don't really want to pay that money so I will have a discussion about ceding responsibility for state education to somebody else."

Minister backs school funding withdrawal

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said giving the states full responsibility for public schools would make them more accountable to parents for the services they deliver.

"We seem to be increasingly entering a world where the responsible of whether you should complain to your state minister or the federal minister is blurred," he told ABC radio.

"I don't think that's helpful for parents and for accountability in the system. Far, far better for those parents to know that 100 per cent of the funding decisions, 100 per cent of the administrative decisions, come from one single level of government and that level of government is accountable for what happens in it."

State and territory leaders have been calling for extra health and education funding since the Abbott government announced $80 billion in funding reductions over a decade in its first budget.

Asked about the income tax raising idea, Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman said: "A concept has been floated, it's not in Tasmania's interests so it's not something that we will support."

Premier 'absolutely horrified'

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was "absolutely horrified" by the prospect of the Turnbull government ending its involvement in public schools.

"The Australian public, and I know Queenslanders, expect the Commonwealth to play a key part and be a key partner when it comes to issues such as education and health," she said.

Ms Palaszczuk said Mr Turnbull, who dined with premiers and chief ministers on Thursday night, had not provided enough detail.

"If you're going to go and sign up for a new house, you see the contract, you go and talk to your bankers, you get legal advice, you would see the detail," she said.

"Today we have nothing. We still have no detail about what Malcolm Turnbull wants to propose to us."

South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill said it was positive to be talking about extra health funding from the Commonwealth.

"But the sort of numbers that we are hearing are really quite pathetic," he said.

'Wait to see the detail'

WA Premier Colin Barnett, however, attacked his colleagues for being so negative about Mr Turnbull's proposal before they have heard the full detail.

He also supported the idea of handing full funding responsibility for public schools to the states as "a straightforward reform" and "not a big deal" given states already have primary responsibility for the public sector.

Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles said he was prepared to have a discussion about the states raising income tax.

"I think it's good that the PM is putting something on the table for debate," he said.

"We've been calling for a debate for a while, it's very easy to do nothing.

"The PM is having a go so good on him."