Not once in the two decades since California's Proposition 98 school-funding formula became law have lawmakers bucked education groups to suspend it – so Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's push to do so has rocked the Capitol.

Neither Democrats nor Republicans are rushing to embrace the idea, but with tax hikes off the table, there may be no easy alternative in bridging the state's $26.3 billion shortfall.

"I have six grandkids going to school," said Assemblyman Danny Gilmore, a Hanford Republican who remains undecided. "But there are going to be some tough choices here."

Schwarzenegger is asking lawmakers to resist opposition from every major education group, including the California Teachers Association, which has spent more than $10 million the past two years on political causes and campaigns.

Adding to the high stakes, incumbents who vote to suspend the school-funding measure could be painted by future challengers as anti-education or insensitive to the needs of schools, a potentially explosive campaign issue.

But failure to suspend Proposition 98 and cut $3 billion this year from schools and community colleges could force deeper cuts to prisons or social services that are high priorities for Republican and Democratic lawmakers, respectively.

The political dilemma is just one aspect of tense budget negotiations, but it's a powerful one, laden with potential fallout in targeting a system that serves millions of children.

"It's almost like the nuclear option," Assemblyman Warren Furutani, D-Gardena, said of suspending Proposition 98. "I don't want to go there myself, for sure."

"Our kids should be our top priority," said Republican Sen. Jeff Denham of Merced. "Suspending Proposition 98 should be the last thing we should be doing."

Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, said suspension is difficult for both parties to swallow, but perhaps unavoidable.

"I'm a realist," Niello said. "I do things I don't like to do sometimes."

Proposition 98, narrowly passed by voters in 1988, ensures a minimum level of funding, generally about 40 percent of state general fund revenue, for education.

The initiative has been suspended only twice, both times with the blessing of education groups. In 1989, schools agreed not to stake a claim on a quarter-cent sales tax hike for earthquake relief. In 2004, during a budget crunch, schools agreed to forgo $2 billion in exchange for concessions to benefit teacher and other employee groups.

State schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell calls the governor's current proposal a "hostile suspension that is totally unacceptable."

Even without suspension, Proposition 98 funding has dropped from $56.5 billion to $50.7 billion in the one-year period that ended June 30 – and further reductions appear inevitable this year, with only the extent and the suspension in doubt.

"Education cannot be made a scapegoat for this recession," O'Connell said. "We need to have a well-trained, well-educated, analytical work force for the future."

CTA launched a statewide television advertising campaign Thursday to fight the proposed suspension, featuring a 30-second spot that urges Schwarzenegger "protect our schools and put our kids first."

"I think it's a very dangerous slope to consider the possibility of suspending Proposition 98," CTA President David Sanchez said.

Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California, said CTA wields immense influence.

"It's hard to imagine putting together a two-thirds vote for suspension, or even significant cuts, without the union at least granting its tacit permission – and that's not going to happen without an extraordinary trade-off," Schnur said.

But Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State University, said not even Proposition 98 should be untouchable in a year of fiscal desperation that has sparked unprecedented measures, including a nearly 15 percent pay cut for state workers.

"I'm not saying the unions are going to like it, and I'm not saying that the unions aren't going to put up a fuss," Gerston said of suspending Proposition 98. "But tell me what else you do?"

Call Jim Sanders, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5538.