Labor education spokesman Josh Willie said Tasmanians have seen "seen little to no improvement in education outcomes after ten years" of Liberal government.

"An incoming Labor Government will facilitate a comprehensive independent inquiry of Tasmania's education system," Mr Willie said.

"The inquiry must look at the system holistically, be objective and designed with no predetermined agendas."

Mr Willie's comments followed a public call by over 180 eminent Tasmanians, including politicians from both sides of politics, for an inquiry to be opened into the state's failing school system.

The call for the inquiry was instigated by economist Saul Eslake, demographer Lisa Denny and academic Michael Rowan.

The three highlighted data showing that Tasmania's system is significantly underperforming the rest of the country.

Tasmania's spends more per student, but gets significantly worse results than any other state.

In the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment tests, Tasmanian students scored lower than students of every other jurisdiction on every category.

Just 53 per cent of students attained a Year 12 certificate in Tasmania - the the lowest of any state, and 23 percentage points below the national average, while the number of students remaining in school after Year 10 was also the lowest of any state.

But even with the election campaign in full swing, the Liberals ignored the inquiry push.

When asked this week, Education Minister Roger Jaensch indirectly rejected the call for an inquiry.

"We are always working to improve our education system, including consulting with experts, however do we not support outsourcing our education policy," he said.

"We are absolutely committed to improving education outcomes in Tasmania.

"Which is why we took the bold and successful decision to extend all our high schools to Year 12 and in 2024 introduced structured literacy into Tasmanian public schools," he said.

Mr Eslake welcomed Labor's commitment to an inquiry, and said although he was disappointed in the Liberal response, he still hoped that they would make a similar commitment.

"Was the inquiry into the child abuse outsourcing policy as well? Are they so contemptuous of expertise that they dismiss asking people who know about the subject as 'outsourcing policy?'"

If the government's rejection of an inquiry is confirmed, it would place it in the unusual position of siding with the Australian Education Union's Tasmania branch.

In response to questions as to whether it supported an inquiry, AEU state president David Genford said two previous reviews had already identified serious funding shortfalls and other problems in Tasmanian schools.

"The next Tasmanian Government should commit to implementing recommendations already on the table ... rather than launch another time-consuming review," he said.

The 2016 Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) review of years 9 - 12 in Tasmania identified "a raft of barriers to student success", including issues with the curriculum and lack of transport, Mr Genford said.

"Again, recommendations have not been properly implemented."

"Not a single Tasmanian public school is resourced to the basic standard required for 80 per cent of their students to achieve minimum standards in reading and numeracy."

But Mr Eslake said the AEU's response emphasizing the 'under-resourcing' of public schools at the national level "completely ignores the question of why Tasmania's education system produces such consistently poor results for students".

He said the Tasmanian Government spends $2827 on education per full-time student, or 28 per cent more than the average of all states and territories, and more than any other jurisdiction except the Northern Territory.

"If spending more money and hiring more AEU members was the solution to Tasmania's education problems, how come we've been doing that every year for at least the past 21 years and still getting below-average outcomes for students?"

Not all Liberals have rejected the call for an inquiry.

One of the two Liberals to sign was Bass MP Bridget Archer.

She said she agreed with the AEU that more funding for schools would help.

"But some of it's more complicated than that," she said.

"I think there's a range of things that can speak to the failures in the education system ... things like inclusion, for example, how well are we doing on inclusion of kids with special needs? What sort of impact has the NDIS had?

"I think there comes a time when you've got to stop tinkering around the edge of policies and actually look at it holistically and see whether there is an opportunity for wider reform," she said.

She was not surprised at the lukewarm response to the inquiry call by the AEU and her state Liberal compatriots.

"Like many things they become politicised or politicall contested in some ways, and people say 'I know what needs to be done' - but nothing gets done, nothing changes," Ms Archer said.

"I don't think it's acceptable that we have a situation where nothing changes, because we have educational outcomes in Tasmania that are some of the worst in the country.

"I don't think that's acceptable, something needs to be done, and I've said even if [this inquiry] is not the solution, if it starts a conversation about what is the solution."