Alan Lachman and Maria Galanzi Lachman of Pearcedale are aiming to open the Insight Education Centre for the

Blind and Vision Impaired in Glen Waverley by February

next year.

The school would also include a specialist teacher-training program, the only one of its kind in Victoria.

A government spokesman told the Journal that the school couldn't attract budget funding because it was not registered with the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority.

But Mr Lachman said the statement was a "smokescreen".

He said the school's application to the authority had been held up by the state government's refusal to be guarantor for the project.

"It's making it very hard to found the school. We will succeed but we need more money.

"In terms of long-term viability, we see state and federal funding as part of our future."

Mr Lachman said the government had an "ideological" aversion to visually-impaired children being taught in a specialist school.

"There's an ideology that blind kids only do well in mainstream schools.

"There needs to be a choice."

The Lachman's daughter Francesca, who was born blind, has found life in a mainstream school "challenging".

"It's too much to expect a mainstream teacher and teaching aide to fully understand," Mr Lachman said.

Flinders federal MP Greg Hunt, who supported the project in a parliamentary speech last year, said the government's decision was "deeply disappointing and deeply concerning".

"It's time for the state to make a commitment for a school for vision impaired students – every other state has one."

The state government's package for children and young people with a disability included funding for increased early-childhood intervention services and for a dedicated autism school from prep to year 12 in Ferntree Gully.

A Victorian Deaf Education Insitute will also be founded to support and train teachers working with deaf students.