The missing students - 120 of them, fabricated out of fiberglass and paint and hope - are returning to Sacramento for a few days, to stand vigil outside the Capitol during the state budget process while their human counterparts in California's community colleges finish the spring semester.

"People like the statues," says Leslie Smith, dean of governmental relations at San Francisco's City College, which coordinated the Missing Student Project.

"We thought we needed to educate the public and do something dramatic that shows who these students are."

Art imitates life.

And life, just now, is growing harder for California's college students, long promised open access to affordable higher education - the first rung, for millions of people through the four decades that the state's Master Plan for Higher Education has been in effect, up the ladder into stability and success.

California's community colleges have been the gateways not only to a college degree but also, in a broader sense, to an educated populace, a strong state tax base and an attractive business climate.

But last fall, because of budget cuts and higher college fees, 175,000 qualified California students were denied access to community college.

"As you begin to ration education," says Smith, "it's the most vulnerable who are affected the most. They don't get anywhere this way."

The missing students include recent high school graduates trying to fill their general education requirements before transferring to universities; returning students seeking new career paths in midlife; people retraining in new professions after layoffs and downsizings; former welfare recipients making their way into the population of taxpayers; and recent immigrants learning English and trying to earn a living.

"You name it, we have it," says Los Rios Community College District spokeswoman Susie Williams. "That's what community college in California is for, to be the starting point for people into higher education."

A Center for Law and Social Policy report released last week indicates that when women moving off welfare completed a two-year community college degree, their chances of long-term success skyrocketed: Their rates of stable employment doubled and they increased their earnings substantially.

Turned away, some potential students will persist in their quest for education.

Many won't.

Fittingly, eight of the statues were decorated at local community colleges: More than 4,000 of last fall's missing students were from the Los Rios Community College District.

"We'd grown every semester for 16 straight semesters," says Williams. "According to the path we were on, we should've added 8,000 students last fall."

Instead, enrollment dropped dramatically.

"That's been the case this spring, too, though we haven't tabulated the statistics yet," says Williams.

Meanwhile, adding to the crunch, thousands more students who applied to the California State University system last fall were redirected downward, to work toward their general education requirements at the community college level instead.

California State University, Sacramento's student population held steady last fall at 28,500 instead of growing by an expected 4 percent, says university spokeswoman Ann Reed.

Now the governor says he wants the state's four-year universities to bear the new burden of budget cuts. Either way, though, higher education is compromised, and students are lost in the shuffle.

And so the statues arrive at the north steps of the Capitol on Monday to begin their silent vigil as the budget process continues.

The politicians can afford to discuss whether they've broken their promise to California. The missing students already know.