A proposal to triple university fees in England nearly set Prime Minister Tony Blair's government tottering this week, even as California college students grumble about similar fee hikes here. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to raise community college fees from $18 to $26 per unit, on top of a $7 per unit increase last year, would come to a 236 percent rate hike for our junior colleges over two years.

Yet college students in both countries still get an extraordinarily good deal.

There is no doubt that California community colleges have gotten the back of the hand from Sacramento for a long time. The state has blithely ignored its funding promises to community colleges under Proposition 98, which putatively ---- but not actually ---- has "guaranteed" community colleges 11 percent of the state's education funding since voters approved the measure in 1988. The state has failed to do that, and failed miserably.

Fully funding California's 208 community colleges would give schools $417 million more next year than Schwarzenegger has proposed. Palomar College would get $8.8 million more. That's a lot of money.

Yet the fees paid by our state's community college students cover only 5 percent of the cost of their education. Fees cover 15 percent of the cost of an education at Cal State and 22 percent of the cost of a degree at the University of California, according to a report from the Public Policy Institute of California.

No one expects public school students to shoulder the full cost of their education. School is such a vital and basic requirement of a decent life that every government in the world underwrites it. More money is being demanded from college students in the United States and Great Britain ---- but nothing beyond reason.

Until Blair instituted college tuition in 1998, education at public colleges was free in England, though rigorous tests excluded all but the top students. Blair's proposal ---- which passed by a 316-311 vote on Tuesday ---- would have students pay as much as $5,500 a year starting in 2006. But a slew of addenda makes that much more affordable than it looks. It would be means-tested, so poor students would still get tuition breaks. The tuition would not be assessed until after students had graduated and began earning the median national income. Then it would be deducted from their paychecks, interest-free, in installments of about $8 per week.

That's quite a deal. It makes one wonder how such a proposal could threaten to bring down Blair's government. Had the vote gone the other way, the opposition Conservative Party almost certainly would have called for a vote of no-confidence.

Nor are we demanding the impossible from California students. A full load of 12 units at Palomar College will cost $312 after the fee hike ---- still the cheapest college education in the country.

Education is so important it should be subsidized, but college students can no longer expect a free ride. Sacramento should live up to its obligations to fund our colleges and public schools, and our elected officials have been cheating at both. But Californians have spoken loud and clear that they hate to pay taxes and prefer reductions in services to tax hikes. That being the case, we think $312 for a semester's education at a community college ---- $1,248 for a two-year college degree ---- is a reasonable price to pay.