Education Minister Martin Dixon said the academy will include a 40 bed hostel and give students access to selective entry high schools in Melbourne.

The Coalition government completed a parliamentary inquiry into gifted and talented education in 2012. One recommendation supported "outreach" programs to help students with limited access to the schools.

Liberal Party candidate for Bendigo East Greg Bickley said it would give gifted Bendigo students the same chance at selective schools.

"These are schools that are particularly targeted at gifted students, and they are all in Melbourne," he said.

"It will help to overcome to tyranny of distance and relocation expenses that prohibit country kids from being able to attend these schools.

Bendigo school principals questioned the priority of the funding commitment. Bendigo Senior Secondary College principal Dale Pearce said, via Twitter, the plan could "strip" gifted students from regional communities.

The school is among 55 in regional Victoria searching for a funding commitment from both the Coalition and Labor to secure the future of the Victorian Virtual Learning Network.

The VVLN lets students access subjects that are unavailable at their school.

Member for Bendigo East Jacinta Allan said she had discussed the program "a number of times" with principals.

She said it was disappointing that the program did not have funding certainty.

"It's so important to keep students studying closer to where they live, instead of sending them to a boarding school in Melbourne," Ms Allan said.