If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to block next year’s UC fee increases looks too good to be true, that’s because it actually is. The details of his idea to use unanticipated revenue to “buy back” scheduled tuition hikes is the stuff of policy wonks, but several details matter to students. Though the windfall is good news, that is where the good news ends: In two years, the state will again need to borrow billions, meaning that the tuition rebate is a one-time gift.

The university, though, will almost certainly raise fees again in 2007-08. This means that under the governor’s proposal, instead of seeing two moderate fee increases over two years, students would be hit with one giant jump in a single year to compensate for the prospective missed round of tuition hikes for 2006-07.

With the exception of the class of 2007, which would enjoy lower fees in its last year, students would see little relief. Those who dropped out of school because of rising tuition over the last five years will not be persuaded to come back by a one-year discount. Nor would it help those discouraged by high fees from applying in the first place; a buyback does nothing to make the remaining three years affordable.

Instead of using the windfall for fees, good economic policy would allow the university to spend the extra money on capital projects — which, unlike tuition, are a one-time expense — like easing the UC building-maintenance crisis. Alternatively, the governor could use the money to reverse recent state cuts to social services: Society surely benefits more from even a single year of health care for a poor family than from a temporary tuition break.

Without a doubt, swelling tuition hurts students by threatening access to higher education. But we won’t find help in the governor’s current budget plan.