For the second time in less than a week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ignored education activists who marched 70 miles to the state Capitol to raise awareness about the West Contra Costa school district's massive debt that may force closure of school libraries and end sports programs this fall.

March organizers said Schwarzenegger declined to meet with the March 4 Education group when it arrived on the Capitol steps last Friday, following eight days of trekking from San Pablo to Sacramento.

Instead, Brian Jones, the governor's director of constituent affairs, had promised to deliver the group's three educational demands to the governor and then call a March 4 Education representative with an update by 5 p.m. Wednesday, said March 4 Education organizer Cesar Cruz.

But the deadline came and went without a call from Jones, Cruz said.

"Not even a simple phone call," Cruz said. "He promised. I did expect a phone call, even a generic response that they give everyone else."

But a core group from March 4 Education say they aren't giving up and have promised to launch a two-week hunger strike beginning May 3 to keep the pressure on state leaders to fulfill three demands. Hunger strikers plan to subsist on only water.

"I think it will focus on our demands and show people we are serious. This is not a political game to us; we are trying to effect real change, and we will do whatever it takes to get that done," said Michael McDonald, a sixth-grade teacher in the West Contra Costa school district. McDonald does not plan to participate in the hunger strike.

A Schwarzenegger spokeswoman did not have an answer as to why Jones had missed his Wednesday deadline. Calls to Jones' office were referred to the governor's press office. After press inquiries, Jones reportedly left a message for organizers, a spokeswoman said.

The West Contra Costa school district is facing a $16.5 million budget shortfall.

March 4 Education was organized to bring awareness to the district's plight and ask the governor for three things: equity in state average daily attendance money; full funding of Proposition 98, which establishes a minimum state funding level for schools; and action by the governor to eliminate the district's $28.5 million state loan, which bailed it out in 1991.

"The march is complete but the struggle has just begun," said Cruz, 30, one of five people who plans to stop eating on May 3.

He said others who plan to participate in the hunger strike are Israel Haros, an Oakland teacher; Karina Oliva and Jessica Vasquez, both UC Berkeley students; and David Johnson, a Contra Costa Community College student.

Students under 18 won't be allowed to participate in the hunger strike, organizers said.

The group chose to start the strike May 3 to mark the two weeks leading up to May 17, the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that racial segregation in public education facilities was unconstitutional.

The group is working with West Contra Costa officials to secure the Richmond Civic Center as the site for the hunger strike, Cruz said.