As students and educators denounce the governor's proposal to raise community college fees again next year, a University of San Francisco researcher is urging higher fees as a way to protect quality and access in the state's largest college system.

The state also should make good on the existing funding guarantee for community colleges, which it has largely ignored, said Patrick Murphy, an associate professor of political science. His study was released today by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Murphy's study reports that California's 108 community colleges, which serve about 1.6 million residents, are among the worst funded in the nation: California trails the national average in revenue per student by 23 percent and ranks 45th out of 49 states. Even with the 63 percent fee increase that took effect this fall, their fees are by far the country's lowest.

It costs only $594 a year at $18 a unit to become a full-time community college student, up from $11 per credit the year before. Last week, the governor proposed jumping the fee to $26 per unit next budget year.

But if fees continue to rise, Murphy argues, the colleges should get to keep the increased fee revenue instead of having their state funding ``offset'' by the amount of the fee increase.

``Students should be asked to pay more for their education, not pay off the state's deficit,'' he said.

Murphy also calls for full funding -- 10.9 percent -- of the Proposition 98 guarantee for community colleges.

The report drew a mixed response from Thomas Nussbaum, outgoing chancellor of the California Community Colleges.

``This is really external validation of something we've been presenting for quite some time -- that community colleges are under-funded compared to the national situation and not in keeping with the other segments,'' Nussbaum said.

He said closing the revenue gap depends on full funding of Proposition 98 guarantee.

``We can't do it with fees alone and we can't do it with rapid fee increase, because we'll harm our poorest students,'' Nussbaum said.

On average, Murphy's report states, California community college students paid only 3 percent of the cost of the educational services they received in 2000-01. If fees increase, he says, students would qualify for a larger share of federal financial aid, such as Pell Grants and Hope scholarships.