Student fees at all community colleges and public universities, including Cal Sate Long Beach, will drop by 5 percent next year, as the College Affordability Act of 1997 was signed into law Friday.

Authored by Assemblywoman Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-San Diego, and sponsored by Lt. Governor Gray Davis, AB 1318 will cut tuition costs $79 at all California State University schools; $190 at the University of California; and $1 per unit at all community colleges.

Originally a fee freeze bill, AB 1318 would have merely froze student tuiton until the year 2000. An amendment on the Senate floor changed the terms of AB 1318 to include a fee reduction, with a fee freeze at that rate until the end of the century.

In the first half of the 1990s, tuition rose by 103 percent at CSU and other public universities. In that time, enrollment at these institutions has fell by a total of 58,000 students. According to a recent study, this decrease is blamed partly on increased fees.

"This is the largest fee reduction in California State history," Davis declared in a press release. "We are finally making amend for the outrageous fee hikes of the early '90s."

An agreement called the Governor's Compact, in effect at CSU and the University of California, has already held tuition costs at a stand-still for three years.

AB 1318 will produce the first fee reduction in two decades at CSU schools.

According to Ducheny's office, the College Affordability Act was partly based on the notion that California's future economic success depends on a well-educated work force.

The bill is intended to make higher education available for all Californians.

The Affordability act provides all public universities and community colleges an appropriation of $41.9 million from the General Fund. And $16.2 million of that will go to the CSU system.