Texas Senate candidate James Talarico argued the state’s public schools fixated on reading and math and were “not built” for students of color, comments now back in view as he seeks higher office.
In a 2020 discussion with the progressive youth group Texas Rising, James Talarico faulted Texas public schools for centering academics and said the system failed poor students and students of color. Fox News Digital reported the remarks as the former teacher and lawmaker runs statewide and prepares to face Republican Ken Paxton.
Talarico framed classroom basics as the problem, not the point. He said the system left no room for what he called social-emotional learning, lessons about feelings and relationships rather than core subjects.
He put it this way while describing his time in the classroom:
"I was trapped in a system that was focused purely on academics, reading, writing, arithmetic. And there wasn't time to talk about social-emotional learning,"
He went further. Memorizing the quadratic equation, he said, ranked below the priorities shared on that call.
"All the things that we all know on this call are more important than whether or not you memorize the quadratic equation,"
Then came the claim now drawing the sharpest attention. Talarico said Texas public education was built for someone else.
"Our public education system, particularly here in Texas, is not built for poor students,"
"It's not built for students of color."
Talarico taught in public school for two years before winning a seat in the Texas House representing the 52nd District. He later served on the House Public Education Committee. That short classroom stint became the backdrop he used for a much larger policy push.
In 2019 he introduced what he called the “Whole Student Agenda,” a package of 24 bills. The measures included changes toward “scientifically accurate” sex education and encouragement of restorative justice programs in schools. The package, as described in the reporting, did not specifically target race-related curriculum. Talarico tied the effort to his view that schools left too little time for the conversations he valued most.
He said he could not have “the really important conversations” with students that “would allow them to live a fulfilling life.” In his telling, curriculum crowded out those talks. Parents who want reading, writing, and arithmetic first hear something different: the former teacher treated those subjects as the trap.
Talarico also led a Texas House bill that would have required most school districts to hire a diversity, equity, and inclusion officer. The same measure called for DEI to be “explicitly” taught in every public-school classroom. Passage and final status were not detailed in the available reporting, but the intent was plain, embed DEI staffing and content across the system.
At a 2022 Texas House hearing he elevated sex education again, calling it “maybe the most important topic” for Texas students. In the same period he dismissed bills aimed at inappropriate school materials as “conspiracy theory-driven” and “kooky stuff.” Lawmakers trying to police what children see in class got the brush-off. Sex-ed expansion and social-emotional priorities got his energy.
That record matches the 2020 Texas Rising comments. Academics were cast as excess. Identity-focused staffing and soft-skills talk were cast as the fix. Texas families who expect schools to teach math, reading, and writing first were told the building itself was the barrier for poor students and students of color.
While Talarico sat on the Public Education Committee, a firm that employed him received millions of dollars in contracts from the Texas Education Agency, according to prior Fox News Digital reporting cited in the same account. His campaign called that allegation a “lie.” On the newly surfaced 2020 remarks, the campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Voters can weigh both the old clip and the non-answer. A candidate who once said Texas schools were not built for students of color now asks those same voters to send him to the U.S. Senate. The opponent across the ballot is Ken Paxton. The education record, two years teaching, the 24-bill agenda, the DEI officer mandate, the hearing lines on sex ed and “kooky” material bills, travels with him.
Talarico’s own words put social-emotional learning above the quadratic equation. They put a structural indictment of Texas schools, “not built” for poor students or students of color, at the center of his critique. They do not put phonics drills, timed math facts, or rigorous coursework first.
Texas Rising gave him a friendly progressive audience in 2020. Statewide voters get the tape now. The same man who felt “trapped” by reading, writing, and arithmetic later wrote legislation to seed DEI officers and explicit DEI instruction in classrooms across Texas. He called sex education maybe the most important topic and waved away material-standard bills as conspiracy-minded.
Public schools exist to teach children how to read, compose, calculate, and master hard content. When a former teacher and education-committee member says those basics crowded out the “really important conversations,” parents hear a values statement. When he says the system was not built for students of color, he offers a racial frame for ordinary academic focus. The clip does not hedge.
Campaigns run on bios and slogans. Records run on votes, bills, and taped remarks. Talarico’s record shows a steady preference for social-emotional programming, sex-ed emphasis, restorative approaches, and DEI infrastructure over a straight academic core. Texas can decide whether that matches what classrooms need.
Schools built for every child start with literacy and numeracy, not lectures on why the building was the enemy.
