Colleges and universities will face another large tuition increase and may turn thousands of students away next year under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new budget.

But local grade schools will escape big funding cuts next year under the proposal, North County educators said Friday.

The school spending plan, part of Schwarzenegger's $99 billion proposal to pull the state out of a potential deficit, would deal major blows to higher education.

The nearly 46,000 students at Cal State San Marcos, Palomar College and MiraCosta College will pay hundreds, sometimes thousands, more in tuition to help pull the state out of a deficit next year. The plan would hike tuition by 10 percent to 40 percent at local community colleges and universities and would eliminate a number of programs, including scholarships for poor college students.

California Secretary for Education Richard Riordan said the proposal would not force colleges and universities to turn students away, but CSU's chancellor disagreed. The Cal State system, including the San Marcos campus, would be forced to turn a total of about 20,000 students away in the fall if the plan is approved by the Legislature, said Chancellor Charles B. Reed.

On the other hand, elementary, middle and high schools would actually get more money under the budget and get more flexibility to spend their cash as they see fit.

Still, North County school districts said they probably won't be able to completely restore the $80 million in cuts they made last year, such as rehiring laid-off teachers and counselors, restarting bus service and shrinking classes.

College to get more costly

Officials at all three local colleges and universities, where tuition spiked this year by up to 40 percent, said more fee hikes could drive away students, especially poor students targeted by the public schools.

"We are certainly concerned that the fee increases for community college students across the state may limit access for low-income students and lower enrollment," said Palomar College spokeswoman Cindy Sabato. "And we don't want to see that happen."

At the community colleges, most students face a 44 percent hike to $26 a credit hour, or about $78 for a typical class. For full-time students, annual tuition would rise to $750. The hike is on top of a 65 percent increase in 2003.

Cal State undergraduate tuition for California residents would increase by an average of $204, bringing the annual bill at Cal State San Marcos to $2,618. Graduate students would pay $3,474 annually, up $900.

At the University of California system, undergraduate fees would rise by $498 to $5482. Graduate students would see a steeper tuition hike, from $5,219 to $7,307.

UC's professional schools would lose 25 percent of their state funding. To fill the gap, fees could rise as much as $5,000 in medicine, law and business administration programs.

The California Faculty Association, the union for the teachers at CSU, said that the proposal makes the outlook "more grim" in a year that has already seen teacher layoffs and crowded classes.

"The last thing California can afford right now is a cut to the CSU," said John Travis, the union's president. "The CSU infuses billions each year into the California economy and produces tens of thousands of educated and productive workers each year."

Grade schools fare better

Grade schools would make out far better than higher education under Schwarzenegger's proposal.

Kindergarten-through-12th-grade schools would receive about $58 billion in the 2004-05 school year, an increase of about $1.9 million over 2003-04. That's an increase of about $216 in state money per student.

But not all of the cash would make it into local classrooms. Of that increase, only about $5 per student will go into the schools' general fund for classroom use; most has been set aside for repaying school debts, retirement programs and other non-classroom costs.

The increase is about half what schools are entitled to under the state constitution. Officials from the secretary for education's office said Friday that the Legislature will have to vote to suspend part of the constitution ---- known as Proposition 98 ---- for the budget plan to work.

The suspension "will require separate legislation," said school finance staffer Jenny Oropeza at a news conference with Riordan. A bill to suspend the measure will require a two-thirds vote from the Legislature, according to the amendment.

More choices for districts

The money that does wind up in local schools would have fewer strings attached.

Keeping to a pledge to give local school boards more control of state money, Schwarzenegger would give school districts free rein over more than $2 billion previously reserved for special programs, such as teacher training, gang intervention, college prep classes, and help for non-native English speakers.

Instead of forcing districts to spend billions on such programs, the plan would allow local school boards to spend the money however they choose ---- including teacher salaries, supplies, classroom aides and administrative expenses.

Local school administrators, who often complain that too much school money is tied up with state restrictions, cheered at the idea of more budget flexibility.

"It's fantastic," said Vista Unified School District budget director Pam Hayden, who said the proposal to free up funds would allow her district to consider restoring some cut programs and giving employees their first raise in three years. Administrators from Poway to Encinitas also applauded the change.

Valuable programs

could be lost

Not so fast, say coordinators of special services that could disappear if school districts take over their funding.

For example, the county's Gang Risk Intervention Program provides mentors and field trips for 200 teens in gang-affected neighborhoods such as Oceanside. The service could be cut if school districts decide to spend their $200,000 budget on teachers or schoolbooks instead of gang prevention, said San Diego County Safe Schools Director Liz Lebron.

"It's heartbreaking. These kids were headed for gangs and jails and because of that program, they're going to college," said Lebron, who worried that school districts would use the gang intervention money to help alleviate other problems.

"School board members, they have teachers' jobs and class size to worry about, they can't think about paying for gang prevention," she said. "But when they look around their campuses and see gang activity ... or when the state realizes it costs $35,000 a year to incarcerate a person, they'll say, 'Man, I wish we had an intervention program.' "