The budget allows school districts to trim as many as seven days off the end of the school year if revenues fail to meet projections and the triggers kick in. Rick Pratt with the California School Boards Association says the legislature ties districts' hands by requiring them to negotiate the cuts with individual teachers unions.
Pratt: "If the teachers say, we don't even want to discuss this, then end of story. So that is an option that is sort of technically there in law, but in the real world probably doesn't exist."
But Senate President Darrell Steinberg says districts have until the end of the school year to work out a deal.
Steinberg: "That's I think plenty of months to sit down with the stakeholders and figure out how to implement that - if it has to be implemented. And I hope that it doesn't have to."
The education trigger cuts would take effect if state revenues fall $2 billion short.
