In short, AB 114 – the education budget trailer bill - attempts to stabilize school funding for 2011-12 and stop the hemorrhaging of state budget cuts. However, the approved state budget also “triggers” budget cuts if projected revenues don’t materialize.

Facts about AB 114:
• AB 114 provides for the ‘flat funding’ of education and specifies that “each school district shall project the same level of revenue per unit of average daily attendance as it received in the 2010-11 fiscal year and shall maintain staffing and program levels commensurate with that level.
• It closed the August ‘RIF window.’
• It suspends the ability of County Superintendents to use the Multiyear Fiscal Projection requirements of AB 1200 employed against us in the recent past to certify local district budgets as ‘qualified’ or ‘negative’ and undermine our collective bargaining agreements.
• According to Governor Brown’s signing message “AB 114 directs schools to adhere to the level of state funding provided in the Budget and not assume a different, or lower, state funding level.” He goes further in saying that “school boards may nevertheless need to make reductions due to cost increases, loss of federal funds, enrollment declines or other factors.” 

Facts about state budget triggers:
• Any cuts required by reduced state revenues are tiered:
 If revenues are $500 million below projections nothing will happen.
 If more than $500 million but less than $2 billion below projections nothing will happen to K-12 education funding.
• Any cuts to public education are proportional:
 If revenues are more than $2 billion below projections, any changes will be determined by how much revenues fall below the projection.
• When the state budget was passed in June, the state was already $1.3 billion ahead of where revenues needed to be to insulate K-12 spending from any reduction.
• Any reductions in the length of the school year must be bargained locally.

Important AB 114 dates related to bargaining:
• December 15, 2011: The date by which the Department of Finance determines whether revenue projections met goals and if triggers are pulled.
• February 1, 2012: The date when the ability to bargain a reduction of up to 7 days becomes operative.
• June 30, 2012: The date by when negotiations (including, one would argue, any bargaining, impasse, mediation and fact-finding) should be concluded.