Republicans and Democrats went through the motions of rejecting each other’s budgets Tuesday, leaving school districts still no closer, weeks into the new year, to knowing how much state money they’ll be getting this year.

But at least they can count on $1.2 billion in federal dollars coming their way soon. Before calling it quits, the Legislature passed an emergency appropriation by a two-thirds majority that will allocate and speed up distribution of the state’s share of the $10 billion  “Keep Out Educators Working Act of 2010″  that Congress passed earlier this month.

The edujobs bill is supposed to put many of California’s estimated 14,500 laid off teachers back on the job. The Legislature acted so that the money wouldn’t get caught in squabbling over the state budget.

Gov. Schwarzenegger was among the first to get the state’s application into the feds for approval, and is expected to sign the bill and shepherd the money to the districts.

SB 847 requires that the state allocate the money based on each district’s revenue limit instead weighting it more to its needy students; high schools will get slightly more than middle schools, which will get a little more than elementary schools. Even wealthy basic aid districts will get a share of the dough.

Districts can assume roughly $200 per student to come their way. They can use the money to hire back teachers or reverse furloughs. The bill calls for immediately distributing 90 percent of the money to districts, though more likely is that the dollars will be distributed in increments.

With no idea of  how much state funding they’ll get, many districts may be reluctant to hire anybody back yet. And at this point, schedules are set, and school has started in most places.

Districts will be able to spread the money out over two years, which may be the prudent course, given the bleak predictions for next year, too.

Update: Superintendent of Public Instruction released the preliminary district allocations this afternoon. Check here.