Proposal

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's revised budget would retain previously proposed budget cuts for the University of California and California State University systems and sharp student fee increases at all higher education institutions in the coming year. It pledges annual funding increases and 2.5 percent annual enrollment growth at UC and CSU beginning in the 2005-06 school year, following a 10 percent cut in freshman enrollment for the 2004-05 year. The 109 campuses of the 1.7-million-student community college system would see a modest boost, including $25 million in cost-of-living funding, over the governor's January proposal, which raised the system's funding from last year. The community colleges would absorb an estimated 7,000 additional students redirected to them by the UC and CSU enrollment cuts. The revised budget would also undo some of the financial aid losses to UC and CSU and restore more than half of outreach funds to improve college preparation among future students.

Bottom line

For the second year in a row, community college and public university students would pay substantially more. Fees at community colleges would rise to $26 per unit -- from $18 this year and $11 last year. UC and CSU undergraduate fees, which have increased 40 percent in the past two years, would rise 14 percent in the coming school year and 8 percent annually for the following two years. Graduate student fees, slated to rise 40 percent this coming year in the January budget, would rise only 20 percent instead, followed by 10 percent each of the following two years.

Politics

UC and CSU officials put a positive front on a promise they won from the Republican governor to restore, in the years to come, at least some of their losses in income and enrollment. Some Democrats in the legislature have criticized the deal. Students oppose the fee increases and enrollment curbs.

"These fee increases are causing more students to be kept out of schools, " said Jeffrey Mandap, student body president at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill. Community colleges Chancellor Mark Drummond described the governor's budget as "excellent news," given the $325 million proposed increase in program funding from last year.