Public and private sector state leaders will come together this week to begin a search for solutions to funding issues across the educational system in California.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the creation of a working group to address funding for higher education on Sept. 2. This follows Newsom’s Economic Growth and Competitiveness Agenda for California, which was published in August and stated the need for a working group to address funding adequacy to figure out long-term funding solutions.

Within the University of California, a 9.6 percent tuition increase approved by the UC Board of Regents in July represented the latest in a series of hikes. July’s action followed a $650 million cut handed down by the state to the UC this year.

“The state has some real financial challenges; we are at the bottom end of a 20-year slide in state funding for higher education,” said UC spokesman Steve Montiel.

The Future of Higher Education working group will be comprised of individuals from the private sector and from three higher education institutions.

Representatives of the public sector, including University of California President Mark Yudof, Chancellor Charles Reed from California State University and Chancellor Jack Scott from the California Community Colleges system, will be joined by individuals from a communications company and a law firm.

However, the panel is fielding criticism for a lack of student representation. The group currently includes only one student voice – UC Berkeley fourth-year political economy student Jeremy Pilaar.

Greater student involvement is necessary to make sure students’ needs and issues are addressed, said Gilberto Soria, a fourth-year political science student and UCLA’s legislative liaison for the UC Student Association.

“We need more student representation in order to bring out the student voice in case the group becomes influential in the future,” he said.

Pilaar said that, although he wouldn’t mind representing all higher education students in California, he would prefer to see at least one student from each of the other higher education systems, namely CSU and the community college system.

“I think (greater student representation) would allow for more diverse views on the issues we are going to be tackling,” Pilaar said.

Francisco Castillo, Newsom’s deputy chief of staff for communications, said more people will be added to the group after its first meeting.

“We want to include a broad coalition of individuals from the public and private sector as well as students to make sure there is a collective effort and discussion to address the issue of funding for higher education,” Castillo said.

It is still unclear, however, whether there will be an increase in student representation, Pilaar said.

“The panel will be well positioned and informed to find solutions based on their respective understandings of the government and the educational system,” said Michael Kahn, senior counsel for the law firm Crowell & Moring and a UCLA alumnus.

But he added that it is still too early to discuss the specifics prior to the group’s first meeting on Wednesday.

Pilaar said he expects the working group to think outside the box and come up with solutions that have not yet been proposed.

“If we can grip people’s imaginations and can really come up with a long-term plan that provides structural reforms for the state and its revenue, then we can be influential,” Pilaar said.