Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's just-released revisions for the 2004-05 education budget offer a greater-than-expected 2.41 percent cost-of-living increase, $110 million in equalization dollars and, unexpectedly, the possibility of some cash for this year.

Some of the money the state snatched from districts in 2003-04 by deferring payments to them may actually head back into their current budgets to the tune of $45 per pupil.

How all this translates into real money will not be clear until the final budget passes the Legislature, but Acalanes high school district administrators on Thursday anticipated a $130 increase in per-pupil funding for next year -- $30 more than allotted in the governor's original budget proposals.

If equalization funding -- the money designed to trim inequities among districts in their baseline funding -- goes through, Acalanes would receive another $46 per pupil.

Administrators at Mt. Diablo, San Ramon Valley and other local school districts also felt moderately celebratory Thursday.

"Anything we get, we love. Every percentage point is a million," said Mt. Diablo district spokesman Sue Berg. "We had to make $6 million in cuts. With a higher (cost of living adjustment), some of those cuts won't have to be made."

Buffeted by three straight years of state budget problems, including painful mid-year cuts in 2001-02 and 2002-03, a record number of California school districts are teetering on the edge.

Even with the May revisions, state superintendent of public instruction Jack O'Connell cautioned that schools are making sacrifices.

"They're not getting all the money they're entitled to," O'Connell said, during a press conference Thursday. "I continue to believe that more revenues are needed if schools are to continue on a trajectory of significant improvement."

State education budget expert Gerry Shelton called Schwarzenegger's revised proposal "basically, a status quo budget." But local school administrators had expected much worse.

"It looks great compared with what we thought we were going to get. In October, I was expecting zero," said Acalanes assistant superintendent Chris Learned. "I still would not hold my breath. Equalization is still very political. This has been a hot button for years. Maybe with Arnold, we'll finally get it."

The combination of a healthy COLA, a recently passed parcel tax and the possibility of equalization money means San Ramon Valley schools may be facing a school year with minimal, if any, program cuts. But Livermore, which receives less money per student from the state, is taking a cautious stance.

"We in schools have been burned so many times by people who claim to be the 'education governor'; we have to see the details," said deputy superintendent Bob Bronzan. "It's hard for us to get excited, but we're glad the governor is thinking of us."