Their numbers are tiny.

Between 13,000 and 15,000 students out of nearly 3 million at California's public colleges go to school for free as a way for the state to honor their parents.

By far, the biggest beneficiaries of no-cost college in California are children of veterans and National Guard members killed or disabled in the line of duty, regardless of their financial need. Children of police officers, firefighters and prison correctional officers killed or hurt on the job can also go for free.

Free tuition offered last year valued roughly $20 million, a fraction of the total budgets for University of California, California State University and the California Community Colleges.

But with California's multibillion-dollar deficit tightening the financial noose around college and university budgets, every dollar is precious and every program a target for potential cuts.

This school year, most students will pay fees 40 percent higher than last year, and UC and CSU officials say they are running out of room for all eligible students -- grim factors that have higher education leaders and analysts suggesting special waivers may be exacting too high a cost.

When other forms of financial aid cover most needy students, they question how fair it is to keep a state law that requires public schools to honor waivers without being reimbursed.

"It's hard to argue that it's a bad thing to give people money to go to college," said Patrick Callan, president of the San Jose-based National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. "But if these programs are going to be a high priority for the state, then it ought to fund them and not ask colleges and universities to do it."

At CSU in 2001-2002, more than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students took advantage of fee waivers. Most were veteran-related and cost the 23-campus system close to $6 million. In the same year, more than 7,000 community college students used the veteran waiver, which cost that system $1.1 million, a minuscule figure compared to the $92 million needs-based waivers issued to low-income students.

The most recent figures for UC are from 1998-1999, when budget planners said the veteran-related waivers cost the system $8.6 million.

"These waivers are a hardship for the university," said CSU spokeswoman Colleen Bentley-Adler. "But in many cases, these students have special circumstances and do deserve a break. "

The issue of fairness also is being raised.

"There is a basic equity issue to consider," said Steve Boilard, higher education director for the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. "It has created these classes of students who get special treatment on some pretty arbitrary bases. For example, should children of firefighters receive benefits that children of doctors don't?"

But creating waivers for children of public servants has been hugely popular among politicians in California and beyond.

Efforts to extend fee waivers to certain students at UC, CSU and community colleges have mostly skated through the Legislature, usually with unanimous endorsement. Lawmakers from both parties say such measures cost little and send a strong message of gratitude to veterans, public safety officials and their families.

The generosity of waiver programs vary. Children of deceased or injured firefighters, police officers and prison guards must prove financial need. Likewise, a new waiver offered to children who lost a parent in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the East Coast also weighs need.

Students can qualify for the veteran-related waiver, however, regardless of family income.

Nancy S. Noriega runs the program for the state Department of Veterans Affairs. She said most of the roughly 13,000 students who took advantage of free tuition last year came from low-or middle-income families. But, she added, because eligibility is based on the students' income only, "We do have cases in which parents make over $100,000 a year."

Other waivers involve students over 60 and UC and CSU employees and their children as part of some campuses' employee compensation packages.

College administrators say it is becoming more difficult to absorb the growing programs.

A bill pending in the Legislature would extend waivers to stepchildren of killed or injured public safety officials. Another that originally sought to give tuition breaks to active members of the National Guard -- 21,000 strong in California -- was changed after education committee chairs in the Assembly and Senate insisted it be needs-based.

Assemblywoman Carol Liu, a Pasadena Democrat who chairs the Higher Education Committee, supports waivers and sponsored the bill creating one for Sept. 11 victims. But she says lawmakers' attitudes are changing; she had to include financial need in the bill for it to proceed.

"Our higher education system is hard-put to do anything more than they are," Liu said. Still, she and other lawmakers say it's important to offer education benefits to Californians who "protect the public good."

"These are people who spend their time protecting us, and their families may have had to sacrifice very much for that."