Collective bargaining to establish salaries, benefits, and working conditions for public school employees is now an institutionalized fact of life in California. Virtually all public school districts participate in collective bargaining. School districts can implement most new laws--from class-size reduction to teacher evaluation--only after they have bargained the impact. This can be significant in a district's labor-management relationships. Further, although districts bargain independently, control of revenues for public schools is centralized in Sacramento--leaving districts with limited flexibility to satisfy competing requests for resources. This report explains how school-district collective bargaining works in California, how conflicts are resolved, and who the players are. (DFR)