California's community colleges rank near the bottom nationally in state funding and over the last 30 years have lost significant financial ground to the University of California and California State University even though the state's colleges enroll far more students.

A study by the Public Policy Institute of California released Tuesday found that California ranked 45th out of 49 states in spending per community college student in 1999-2000.

California's community colleges enroll 1.6 million people, many of them low-income and members of minority groups. In order for the system to continue functioning effectively, the state must both raise the colleges' historically low fees and fully fund the money guaranteed them under a 1988 ballot initiative, according to the study, Financing California's Community Colleges.

"In some ways, they're victims of their own success," said Patrick Murphy, the study's author and director of the McCarthy Center at the University of San Francisco. "They have made do with baling wire and hockey tape, but I would think that if we really want them to play the role envisioned -- providing higher education to all and meeting all these other missions of vocational education, welfare-to-work and transfer prep -- continuing to ask them to (make do with limited funding) doesn't make sense."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed last week raising community college fees from $18 to $26 per unit, following a $7 increase last year. He also proposed increasing funding for community colleges by $100 million, restoring a portion of recent cuts.

But the state would continue to give the system less money than promised under Proposition 98, which guarantees a percentage of the state general fund for kindergarten through 12th grade and community colleges.

The colleges haven't received their 10.93 percent share of that money in more than a decade, said Scott Lay at the Community Colleges League of California. Fully funding the guarantee would mean giving the colleges $417 million more next year than the governor plans to.

"My whole reason for raising fees is so there's more money to spend on student services," said Murphy. "(The governor)is only doing half of the recommendation."

Between 1971 and 2001, UC saw its per-student revenue increase 23 percent; CSU saw a 24 percent rise. Community colleges' revenue increased 4 percent.

Community college students pay a smaller proportion of what it costs to educate them than UC and CSU students do -- just 3 percent on average, compared with 22 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

Twenty years ago, the colleges didn't even charge fees. Murphy suggests that charging $30 per unit could net the colleges $100 to $200 million more annually.

But Schwarzenegger's proposal to increase fees 44 percent to $26 a unit next fall strikes the community college league as far too much too soon.

A steady schedule of fee increases that don't exceed 10 percent annually is much more palatable, Lay, of the community college league, said. The state increased fees last year 64 percent to $18, and state college officials believe the hike contributed to the loss of 175,000 students who were expected to enroll this year.

"It's not fair to the students of today," said Lay. "Sticker shock happens."

The study calls on California to reconsider how it distributes money to the 72 districts that operate a total of 108 community colleges. The current process, known as "program-based funding," is needlessly complicated and results in inequities, Murphy said. He advocates funding districts largely on a per-student basis.

The Contra Costa Community College District ranked 56th in state funding in 2000-01, despite its enrollment growth and the high cost of living in the Bay Area. Chabot-Las Positas ranked 55th.

"It's extremely difficult in the Contra Costa district to operate our colleges," said John Hendrickson, vice chancellor for finance and administration at the Contra Costa Community College District, which includes Contra Costa College in San Pablo, Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill and Los Medanos College in Pittsburg. "Moving to a per-student funding basis ... is a good idea."