The Australian Greens' education policy is designed to support teachers, students and school communities, and to value local knowledge of the real needs of those communities, according to Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

Senator Hanson-Young, Greens spokesperson on Education, says the Federal Government's announcement giving principals and parents more powers to hire and fire teachers does not address the real issues of school education.

"We need to be supporting teachers and leaders in our schools, that means providing resources to get the best outcomes for school communities,'' Senator Hanson-Young said.

"However Prime Minister Julia Gillard is again copying Liberal leader Tony Abbott, trying to neutralise an important issue by playing "me-too" politics. "We need to acknowledge the importance of local input into what funding is required for the real needs of schools, but Ms Gillard's proposal would potentially pit school communities against each other.

"This could lead to the Americanisation of schools and an effective two-tiered system. Our most talented teachers would remain out of reach for schools in great need, who lose out because they lack the negotiating power of schools whose needs are not as urgent.''

Senator Hanson-Young said Australia needed to attract the best and brightest of young people into teaching and the Greens were committed to find ways to keep them there.

"The Greens' Supporting Teachers initiative would establish a trial program to provide support and mentoring for new teachers from people who have the experience and the ability to help,'' Senator Hanson-Young said.

The program would run in 2000 schools across Australia - the Commonwealth would fund the training of mentors and assist the states in employing more teachers to allow reduced workloads. The total cost per year would be around $150m.

"We know that 30 to 40 per cent of new teachers resign in their first three to five years, often from burn out,'' Senator Hanson-Young said.

"Our education policy is designed to try and end this statistic by strengthening local school communities, supporting teachers by bringing people together, not just pitting one group against another.''