It is a story that may get overlooked -- unless you happen to be a student or an aspiring student.

With spending cuts imposed by the new state budget, Sonoma State University and most other state universities will turn away deserving students next January. The customary practice of admitting new students mid-year has been limited -- at some campuses, suspended -- for the foreseeable future.

Sonoma State will be closed to lower division transfers at mid-year, but upper-division transfers will be admitted -- primarily because officials are sensitive to the needs of junior college graduates whose plans would be disrupted.

At the state universities, the damages and hardships are probably no more horrific than those inflicted by other budget cuts affecting education and social services.

Still, it is a sad moment. Once upon a time California was committed to a quality public education for all of its citizens -- because education was the linchpin to economic progress and equal opportunity. Now that promise is slipping away.

This is what happens when budget decisions are motivated by politics rather than the responsibility to sustain quality public services over time.