A second chance
Transit and housing are the bread and butter … PCC fights the feds … And you change your mind like a girl changes clothes.
Losing in the Ward 6 Democratic primary four years ago didn’t end Miranda Schubert’s interest in local politics.
In fact, Schubert doubled down on civic activism, volunteering once a week at Casa Maria Soup Kitchen, landing an appointment to Tucson’s Board of Adjustment and helping to co-found the Transit for All Coalition.
And all of that helped prepare her for this year, when Schubert is now the Democratic Party nominee, running as a slate with the other Democratic candidates: Ward 3 Councilmember Kevin Dahl and Ward 5 candidate Selina Barajas.
As the operations manager, on-air DJ, and producer for KXCI Community Radio, Schubert has long been plugged in to Tucson’s civic scene, and she has a long list of endorsements — more than a dozen high-profile Democrats, several unions, plus the progressive PAC Arizona List and the Jane Fonda PAC.
If elected (and that’s a strong probability, given Tucson’s Democratic leanings), Schubert said she’ll pour most of her energy into transit and housing issues, including continuing to offer free fares on Sun Tran buses.
Free fares have been a hot-button topic in Tucson politics for years, but it has recently come to a head, with groups like the local Teamsters union equating free fares with rising criminal activity on city buses and at bus stops. Critics argue that charging a fare would raise money for security and cut down on crime.
Schubert said she is concerned about the recent issues on routes and at bus stops, but doesn’t believe the solution warrants ending the free-ride policy.
“Reinstating fares will cause more harm than good,” Schubert said, adding that start-up costs associated with collecting fares could be expensive.
Her argument: The council can do both — put more money into public transit rather than pit groups against each other.
Instead of turning to riders and asking them to pay, she points to the renewal of the Regional Transportation Authority as a potential solution, as well as convincing the Rio Nuevo board that a robust transit system is good for local economic development.
She adds that Tucson is an outlier when it comes to funding public transportation.
”Tucson’s one of the few cities that doesn’t have dedicated funding for transit,” Schubert said. “There are a few different approaches to securing more funding for transit. Research shows every dollar invested in public transit generates $4 to $5 in local economic benefit.”
She also thinks Tucson should revisit its long-term transportation plans, focusing more on alternatives to commuting.
“Tucson is like the third-deadliest city for pedestrians and fifth-deadliest for cyclists,” Schubert said.
She’s right about both stats, for what it’s worth.
Still, when she talks about her plans for public transportation, she said she often has to assure those she meets with that she isn’t trying to take away their car — she just wants roads that make room for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.
Another priority for Schubert is addressing homelessness and building more long-term affordable housing.
As a volunteer for Casa Maria, Schubert said she has seen the same faces over and over — a sign that people are still struggling to move off the streets — and wants to put more resources into helping the most vulnerable.
That includes the pilot program known as Star Village, set to open later this year. It will be a city-sanctioned outdoor sleeping site for 25 homeless women and non-binary people, located on Grant Road near 6th Avenue and managed by the Primavera Foundation.
“This isn’t just housing funding. This is also about funding for wraparound services for housing that encompasses everything from emergency, immediate shelter to transitional to permanent supportive and permanent housing. We need more of that continuum, and we need more Star Villages,” Schubert said.
While she opposed the city’s Proposition 414 earlier this year,1 Schubert said she supports a modified version of the half-cent sales tax measure.
That proposal would split the question of hiring more police officers and setting aside resources for homelessness into two separate ballot measures.
After knocking on thousands of doors this year, Schubert is convinced the community is willing to pay for those things if political leaders come back with a new plan.
“I have noticed more and more voters understanding that if we pay little or no taxes, then no wonder our amenities are the way that they are,” Schubert said.
Schubert will face retired businessman and Republican nominee Jay Tolkoff in next month’s general election. Ballots are already hitting mailboxes, and should be mailed back by no later than Oct. 28, or dropped off on election day.
Correction: In Friday’s edition, we wrote that Tolkoff injured his head in college — we meant his hand. We knew it was only a matter of time before using our LOL section to point out typos would come back to bite us.
The Pima Community College governing board voted unanimously on Monday to support a group suing the U.S. Department of Education, seeking a legal remedy to restore $1.6 million in annual funding for its Upward Bound program.
For years, the federally funded initiative has provided low-income and first-generation high school students with mentoring, counseling, college prep classes and financial aid guidance.
That pipeline was cut off when the Department rescinded the grants earlier this year, citing alleged violations of federal civil rights laws, forcing the college to cover the costs of the program two days before students were expected on campus.
Last week, faculty, staff and former students of the program came to the governing board meeting to ask them to do everything possible to save it.
PCC Governing Board President Greg Taylor said the college had no choice but to fight.
The board and PCC administration had already tried every other avenue — exhausting bureaucratic appeals and lobbying Arizona’s congressional delegation, winning bipartisan support but failing to sway the Department of Education.
“For me, the timing of the lawsuit came together in a way that made a lot of sense,” Taylor said. “The biggest thing for me is that we are continuing this fight. It doesn’t happen as fast as people would like, but there is a process.”
The board directed its attorneys to file an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE).
Their lawsuit challenges the Department of Education’s discontinuation of Upward Bound and related TRIO grants on behalf of the colleges COE represents. By seeking injunctive relief, the lawsuit hopes to restore TRIO-related cuts for all colleges.
TRIO is an umbrella term for specific federal education grants, including those associated with the Upward Bound program.
Several other schools have already voted to file similar briefs, Taylor told the Tucson Agenda.
Letters obtained from PCC show the federal concerns extend beyond grant applications to the college’s existing policies — a shift that reframes the fight.
Public statements in the last few weeks pointed to the Trump administration’s opposition to Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) components isolated specifically to the Upward Bound grants, but a closer look found the feds are concerned about the college’s overall policies.
In a May letter, an acting assistant secretary for postsecondary education wrote bluntly:
“The Department has undertaken a review of grants and determined that the grant specified above provides funding for programs that reflect the prior Administration’s priorities and policy preferences and conflict with those of the current Administration.”
A September letter went further, pointing to PCC’s college-wide equity plan — referenced in its application but applied across four campuses — as a red flag.
“The application for funding states the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Plan guides faculty, staff, and administration in treating all PCC students with equity,” the Department’s deputy chief of staff for policy and programs wrote.
Monday’s vote puts it in the same camp as the state of Arizona, Pima County, and the City of Tucson — all of which have filed their own legal fights against the Trump administration over funding cuts.
The U.S. Department of Education has been sending some mixed signals.
We were reviewing the official letters between the department and Pima Community College when we noticed that the feds already said “yes” to some of the college’s Upward Bound grants last month, before changing their minds and sending a second letter killing the grant a few weeks later.
As an example, the college got a letter on September 16 from the federal agency saying it had approved the funding for the program on the downtown campus.
Two weeks later, PCC got another letter — signed by the same official — saying the money was denied.
We quote the great American poet Katy Perry when we read these letters.
“Cause you’re yes, then you’re no
You’re in, then you’re out
You’re signed, then declined ….”
Not to be confused with TUSD’s Proposition 414 that will be on the same ballot — at least for some Tucson residents — this month.
The damage being done to our higher education system at the federal level will be felt for years to come and make us weaker as a country. But let us not forget that Republicans in Arizona zeroed out funding for community colleges in Maricopa and Pima county and have never restored funding for higher education prior to 2008 levels.
This should make every Arizonan furious as a deprives our young people of chance to get ahead and diminishes our state's economic opportunities.
I’m proud of PCC for holding the line. Since community colleges don’t receive the same amount of federal funding, and they’re fighting for a smaller “slice” than that of a UA or other comparable R1, this is a wise test for the administration’s genuine intentions behind DEI cuts. Cancel culture is strong on both political poles, and this is a perfect example of far-right cancel culture. Plus, from what I know about TRIO recipients, I’d venture to guess that some of these students represent the men of color contingent that helped Trump win in 2024. Hoping DoE wises up to these factors and gives up on clawing back such a relatively small, but incredibly impactful, portion of federal funding.