GUEST COLUMN: The Workforce We Need Tomorrow Starts With the Investments We Make Today

By Jonathan Rothschild

During my years as mayor of Tucson, I learned that some of the most consequential decisions a community makes rarely generate the most headlines. They are the decisions that determine whether we are prepared for what comes next.

Proposition 430, Pima Community College’s proposed $250 million General Obligation bond, is one of those decisions.

And because it appears near the end of a crowded ballot, it deserves a closer look.

Pima Community College serves approximately 41,000 learners across five campuses. For Southern Arizona’s business community, PCC is more than a college. It is part of the region’s workforce infrastructure, preparing nurses, teachers, technicians, first responders, IT professionals and skilled workers.

The question is whether the infrastructure supporting that work is keeping pace with the needs of our economy.

State funding for PCC’s capital needs ended in 2009. State operating support ended in 2015. The College estimates that it has lost $221 million in state support since then. PCC has stretched revenue bonds, grants and reserves to keep serving students and meeting workforce needs, but those resources are finite. Good stewardship can bridge a gap for only so long.

Meanwhile, some PCC facilities date to the 1970s. Some of the buildings where students are preparing for careers in cybersecurity, information technology and STEM were built before many of those careers even existed.

That matters to employers.

It matters when businesses cannot find qualified workers. It matters when students training for high-demand careers are working in facilities that no longer meet the needs of those programs. And it matters when Southern Arizona is competing with other regions for businesses, investment and talent.

Public safety provides a particularly clear example.

PCC’s EMT and paramedic programs currently operate out of a former elementary school more than 60 years old leased by the College. These programs prepare people for jobs our community cannot do without, yet the facilities are no longer adequate for the training they provide. Proposition 430 includes a proposed Center of Excellence for Public Safety and First Responders at East Campus that would bring related programs together and expand training capacity.

That is workforce infrastructure.

The same is true of proposed investments in cybersecurity and IT, STEM, teacher education, student services and other academic spaces.

PCC also launched its first bachelor’s degree program in teacher education this fall. At a time when schools need more qualified teachers, creating a stronger pathway to prepare them here in Southern Arizona is a practical investment in the region’s future.

The proposal also includes a significant fiscal component. Proposition 430 would allow the College to refinance existing revenue debt, reducing interest costs and freeing approximately $4 million annually for reinvestment in students, workforce training and facilities. 

That deserves consideration alongside the proposed projects, the cost to taxpayers and the public oversight attached to the bond.

PCC’s economic impact is already substantial. A 2023 economic impact study cited by the College estimated $1.3 billion in additional regional income annually and 16,651 jobs supported by the College’s activities.

For businesses, the connection is straightforward. A well-trained workforce strengthens employers. Strong employers create jobs. And those jobs strengthen the regional economy.

We talk frequently about economic competitiveness—about attracting employers, growing companies and creating opportunity.

But competitiveness requires more than attracting businesses. We have to develop the people those businesses need.

That means investing in the places where Southern Arizonans acquire the skills to fill those jobs.

Proposition 430 will appear near the end of a crowded ballot, making it especially important that we talk about it. Share the information with your colleagues, employees, family, friends and neighbors. Make sure they know the issue is on the ballot, understand what is being proposed, and support Proposition 430.

Our region’s future will not be determined by one bond or one ballot. But it will be shaped by the choices we make today to invest in the people, skills and institutions that will carry Southern Arizona forward.

The workforce we need tomorrow starts with the investments we make today.

Photo by Chris Mooney