Roughly 22,000 adults in Pima County are out of work and another 70,000 do not have a high school diploma.
For years, Pima Community College has been one of Southern Arizona’s primary pathways for adults trying to change those circumstances — offering GED classes, English-language instruction and workforce training that can eventually lead to careers in nursing, aviation and information technology.
But state lawmakers eliminated $1.5 million for the program in next year’s budget.
On paper, it is just another line item zeroed out in the state’s $18.3 billion budget — one of countless casualties in an increasingly competitive fight for state funding.
In practice, lawmakers eliminated funding for one of Southern Arizona’s primary workforce development pipelines: adult education classes at Pima Community College.
In the last four years, PCC’s Adult Education program has helped more than 650 adults earn GEDs and offered career training to roughly 1,700 people.
PCC has built the program to extend beyond GED classes. The college offers dual enrollment pathways that can allow someone to get their GED and then enroll in one of its in-demand programs like information technology/cybersecurity, aviation technology and nursing programs.
Lawmakers slashed funding to PCC in next year’s budget, but they did give it a share of the statewide funding for STEM programs.
Rival demands
Jonathan Paton, a former Southern Arizona Republican lawmaker who now works as the lobbyist for the college, told the PCC Governing Board on Monday night that the community colleges across the state were fractured this year — with different colleges asking legislators to fund competing priorities.
Maricopa Community College, for example, wanted the state to restore its operations funding, which the state cut a decade ago.
Rural community colleges successfully lobbied for one-time funding and got roughly $14 million combined, which Paton said was an easier commitment for lawmakers.
Still, some Southern Arizona lawmakers refused to support a budget that didn’t include funding for PCC.
”It was so much of a priority for Consuelo and Alma Hernandez that they refused to vote for the budget because it wasn’t in there,” Paton told the board on Monday.
Democratic Rep. Consuelo Hernandez said during budget discussions last week that continuing to fund adult education at PCC would have given people a chance at lifting themselves out of poverty.
“You’re talking about people who … weren’t able to finish their high school diploma to earn their GED. You can’t even get a job at your local grocery store,” Hernandez said. “There are so many barriers in people’s lives. And this was such an easy win.”
Republican Sen. Vince Leach, who has long been an ally for Pima College, said it wasn’t a Republican vs. Democrat issue — the votes for Pima College simply weren’t there this legislative cycle.
The Republican called the lack of support for the adult education programs at PCC frustrating.
“It seems like shooting ducks in a barrel, they were enrolling in the program, graduating and then going to work,” Leach said.
PCC Governing Board member Theresa Riel, who taught math at the college for 23 years, said community leaders need to decide whether they support candidates who routinely vote against higher education.
“I’m tired of hearing the business community say, ‘well, we need educated workers.’ Well, if you’re not going to elect people that support public education, you’re not really wanting educated workers,” Riel said.
PCC Governing Board member Greg Taylor said the program will continue for another year without state funding. But PCC cannot afford to fund the program next year, Taylor told us.
Absent renewed state funding, the college will have to consider closing programs and layoffs.
Paying the price: The owners of Palo Verde Mobile Home Park have agreed to pay $795,000 in restitution, penalties and repair costs after years of electrical problems leaving residents without reliable air conditioning during Tucson’s triple-digit degree summer heat, the Tucson Sentinel’s Paul Ingram reports. Attorney General Kris Mayes announced the settlement Monday, saying the park’s owners cooperated with the state after her office accused them of failing to provide “reliable and consistent electricity” to tenants. Under the agreement, tenants of the 18 buildings will receive a combined $130,000 in restitution, the park must continue upgrading its electrical system, and landlords are banned from raising rents or fees for two years to ensure there is no retaliation against tenants.
Deporting DACAs: As the DACA program hits its 14th anniversary, Democratic U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva and County Attorney Laura Conover are going to bat for a local DACA recipient who was arrested and faces deportation for allegedly stealing about $5,000 worth of makeup from a local Ulta Beauty store, KOLD’s Michael Cooper reports. Grijalva is calling on ICE to release Jessica Marlene Corrales-Duarte from a detention facility, noting she has not yet been convicted of a crime, and Conover is working to offer her a plea deal that would “mitigate harsh immigration consequences, secure accountability, and make whole the victim.”
“Here, unfortunately, ICE has taken custody of the individual under the framework set up in the Laken Riley Act,” Conover said. “Just as I predicted when I strenuously campaigned against this Act, the attempt to deport the individual under an allegation alone (not a conviction) deprives the individual of due process and deprives the State of its work of making victims whole again.”
Offline: A regional 911 network outage temporarily affected 911 calls in Pima County for a few hours on Monday afternoon. Service came back by 5 p.m., the Daily Star’s Griffin Salkowski reports. 911 service for the Tucson Police Department remained operational.
Making a comeback: The vacant Hotel Arizona building next to the Tucson Convention Center is finally seeing new life as construction crews transform the former Braniff Place Hotel into the new Hyatt Regency Tucson Downtown, KGUN’s Patt Parris reports. The 13-story hotel, which opened in 1973 and has been vacant for 14 years, is “going to have that uniqueness that it did when it opened,” per project manager Jerry Fischer. The renovated property will include an upscale restaurant and bar, and more than 22,000 square feet of meeting space. It’s scheduled to open in October 2027.
Wouldn’t it be cool if local news could make a similar comeback? You can make it happen by clicking the button.
Survival Mode: The Haven, an inpatient addiction recovery center that has served Southern Arizona women since 1970, is facing severe financial strain after disruptions tied to Arizona’s Medicaid fraud crackdown, Arizona Public Media’s Katya Mendoza reports. CEO Aimee Graves said the facility’s annual budget is a little over $7 million, but delayed reimbursements and regulatory changes have drained reserves that once exceeded $3 million and are now closer to $350,000, which is about enough to cover a month of operations.
Livestreaming has made it a lot easier to keep an eye on local government — live, on demand or in glorious rewatchable replays of political buffoonery.
The one downside is that it all requires electricity, which we learned Monday when the Pima Community College Governing Board meeting abruptly stopped streaming mid-sentence.
The college blames a brief power outage. We think a merciful God simply reached for the plug.