In what appears to be a bit of a political warning shot, members of what’s known as the “Education Coalition” told reporters today they haven’t given up on the $3.2 billion they say Governor Schwarzenegger promised to repay the schools as part of a budget deal struck in 2003.

Today’s background briefing was the latest chapter in the long running “did he break his promise?” debate over money owed (or not) under the school guarantee Proposition 98.

Education critics handed out new charts showing how the total IOU (thanks to rosy state revenues) has grown to what they say is a total of $3.2 billion– a number arrived at by combining an IOU of $1.7 billion from the 2004-05 fiscal year and a $1.5 billion IOU from the 2005-06 fiscal year.

Remember, this is not a debate about education money in the governor’s 2006-07 budget proposed last month– rather, it’s about money from previous budget years.

Even so, the governor’s budget advisers point out that school funding is, indeed, growing… by their estimates, an additional $7.3 billion for K-14 education from July 2005 through July 2007.

But the “money owed” issue seems to be particularly thorny for two reasons in 2006: first, state revenues appear to be up significantly from recent times, and education advocates claim that other state services are growing faster than school programs under Prop 98.

Secondly, this is an election year. And the education coalition members flatly said today that they believe the issue still resonates because of their campaign against Schwarzenegger in the 2005 special election, where they played up the alleged “broken promise”. And while they say they are still in a negotiating mood, they also won’t rule out another direct appeal to the voters.