In the late summer of 2000, the California Senate unanimously approved a bipartisan bill that made a sacred promise to generations to come: Challenge yourself in school, get good grades and you'll be guaranteed the opportunity for a college education regardless of your family's income.

Four years later, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposes to shred that promise.

In fact, taken together, a series of Schwarzenegger administration budget proposals would change the state's approach to higher education in ways never before contemplated.

"The combined effect of the governor's proposals is to make our promises hollow," said Penny Edgert of the California Education Roundtable.

Edgert made her comments Tuesday morning at a meeting of the Commission on Post Secondary Education at which all of Schwarzenegger's proposals affecting the University of California, California State University, community colleges and student aid were starkly woven together.

Here are some of the major proposals:

-- Raise undergraduate fees at four-year colleges by 10 percent, graduate school fees by 40 percent and community college fees by 44 percent.

-- Reduce freshmen enrollment at UC and CSU by 10 percent and redirect those students to community college.

-- Change the traditional formula of setting aside one-third of the revenue from fee increases in order to boost university-based student financial aid and allocate only 20 percent instead.

-- Lower by 10 percent the family income ceilings for students to qualify for financial assistance known as Cal Grants.

In the case of Cal Grant B, for the most financially needy, the income ceiling for a family of four would drop from $36,300 a year to $31,600.

-- Reduce by 44 percent -- from a maximum of $9,708 a year to $5,482 -- the amount of Cal Grants available to students who attend private universities.

-- More than triple community college fees for any student who already has a bachelor's degree -- yet who may need retraining to find a job in today's economy.

Individually, any one of these proposals might be interpreted as a belt-tightening measure taken during difficult times.

Taken together, however, they could fundamentally alter public higher education in California -- the one public arena in which the state is still viewed as a national leader.

The effect of some of these proposals is already being felt, said Mary Gill, vice chancellor for government relations for the state community colleges.

"If you go to a high school workshop you see an increasing amount of uncertainty among students and their parents over what they perceive as a reduction in four-year opportunity," she said.

The rollback in freshman admissions at the University of California will likely mean that next year, for the first time, there will not be room for all who have long been promised a seat at the nation's premier public university system.

"We're opening a door that's not a door we want to open," said Commissioner Guillermo Rodriguez, an executive with Pacific Gas & Electric. "No growth at UC and CSU is just bad public policy .... It will not produce the kind of workers we need for a growing economy."

The commission went on record opposing the enrollment rollback and also all of the proposed cuts in student financial aid.

Commissioner Irwin Field, CEO of a food processing company, called the proposed financial aid cuts shortsighted.

"It's curing a short-term problem with a solution that's going to have long-term consequences to the work force of the state. You're limiting access, you're limiting diversity, you're creating an elitist education system," he said.

As the state continues to struggle with the fiscal crisis that inspired these damaging recommendations, much time has been devoted to discussing those things that have gone wrong in California.

Higher education is something that has long gone right. On any short list of the top public universities in the nation you'll find a half-dozen California campuses. University-based research is largely the reason why the state is a leader in the computer and biotechnology industries. The community college system is the nation's most productive entryway to a college degree.

Yet, when times get tough it is the easiest target.

We've heard Schwarzenegger say that the state must cut up its credit card in order to get back on sound financial footing. That's a sound piece of common-sense fiscal advice. Here's another: When times get tough, don't destroy the farm. Once it's gone, the bounty it produces is gone forever.

-- Timm Herdt is chief of The Star's state bureau.