Education Minister Simon Birmingham has told ABC’s Q&A some private schools are over-funded, conceding they could be worse off if the government got its way.

Senator Birmingham refused to create a “hit list” of schools that could face funding cuts, but insisted the way money is distributed is unfair.

“If you want me to create a hit list or something tonight, Tony, that’s not about to happen,” Mr Birmingham told the Q&A host with a laugh.

Senator Birmingham wants to deregulate the sector. Photo: ABC/Supplied

“Some schools that are notionally over-funded take more than 100 years to come into alignment with the current funding model,” he told the program on Monday evening.

A report from the Australian Education Union in May found that government funding to private schools had increased at twice the rate of state schools in the years 2009 to 2014.

Using MySchool data, the study found state and federal funding rose by $1911 for every private school student in those five years, or 30.3 per cent, while it only rose $1539 for state school students, or 14 per cent.

For Catholic schools, funding also rose by 30.2 per cent.