Texas Senate candidate James Talarico said the state’s public schools were “not built for students of color” and ranked social-emotional learning above core academics, comments now back in view as he faces Ken Paxton.
In a 2020 discussion with progressive youth group Texas Rising, the former House member and short-time public school teacher tore into the Texas public education system for centering reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Fox News Digital reported the remarks as Talarico prepares to face Republican Ken Paxton in the upcoming midterm contest for a Texas U.S. Senate seat. The clip lays out a worldview that treats traditional academics as the problem and identity-focused programming as the fix.
Talarico described his own experience inside the system in blunt terms.
"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, ranking soft skills above hard content.
"All the things that we all know on this call are more important than whether or not you memorize the quadratic equation,"
The most striking lines went beyond curriculum complaints. Talarico cast the entire Texas public education system as structurally unfit for the children he claimed to champion.
"Our public education system, particularly here in Texas, is not built for poor students,"
Then came the racial claim.
"It's not built for students of color."
That is not a narrow critique of funding formulas or campus staffing. It is a blanket indictment of Texas public schools as institutions that, by design, do not serve poor kids or kids of color. Parents who send their children to those schools every day for reading drills, math practice, and graduation requirements may hear something different: an activist argument that the basics themselves are the barrier.
Talarico taught in public schools for just two years before moving into the Texas House, where he represented the 52nd District and sat on the Public Education Committee. The 2020 Texas Rising appearance framed social-emotional learning and “important conversations” as the missing core, not phonics or algebra.
The rhetoric matched a legislative record. In 2019, Talarico introduced what he called the “Whole Student Agenda,” a package of 24 bills. The agenda included modifications for “scientifically accurate” sex education and measures encouraging restorative justice programs in schools.
Fox News Digital noted the package did not specifically address race-related issues even as its author later argued the system was not built for students of color. Restorative justice models often shift discipline away from clear consequences. Sex education mandates, sold as science, become flashpoints when parents lose say over timing and content.
Talarico also led a bill that would have required most Texas school districts to hire a diversity, equity, and inclusion officer and for DEI to be “explicitly” taught in every classroom across the public school system. That is not a side project. It is a statewide staffing and curriculum mandate that puts identity ideology into the daily schedule, the same schedule he said already lacked room for anything but academics.
In a 2022 Texas House hearing, Talarico described sex education as “maybe the most important topic” for Texas students. He dismissed some bills aimed at materials and parental concerns as “conspiracy theory-driven” and “kooky stuff.”
Voters can weigh that hierarchy for themselves. A lawmaker who treats sex education as possibly the top priority, brands curriculum guardrails as kooky, and says social-emotional learning outranks the quadratic equation is telling families what he values when trade-offs appear. Reading proficiency, math readiness, and orderly classrooms do not vanish because a hearing room prefers a different emphasis.
While serving on the Public Education Committee, Talarico’s outside education consulting work came under fire. A prior Fox News Digital report found that a firm employing him received millions of dollars in contracts from the Texas Education Agency. His campaign called the allegation a “lie.” Fox News Digital sought comment for the latest story on the 2020 remarks; the campaign did not immediately respond.
The contracts dispute sits beside the policy record, not apart from it. A lawmaker who shapes education rules while tied to a firm paid by the state education agency invites hard questions about incentives. Calling the reporting a lie does not erase the need for clear answers on amounts, timing, and recusals.
Talarico now seeks a Senate seat against Paxton. The 2020 Texas Rising clip, the Whole Student Agenda, the DEI officer mandate, and the sex-education priority statements form a single through-line: less faith in core academics, more faith in social programming and identity infrastructure.
Texas families living with chronic learning gaps have watched national test scores and campus disorder for years. A candidate who says the system is not built for poor students or students of color, then pushes DEI staffing and restorative approaches, is offering a diagnosis and a prescription. The diagnosis blames the academic mission. The prescription expands the very soft-focus programs that crowded out drill-and-practice time in the first place.
Social-emotional language can sound caring in a activist call. In a classroom it competes with minutes that used to go to reading groups and math facts. When a former teacher with two years in the classroom elevates those soft aims above the quadratic equation, and labels the Texas system unbuilt for children of color, he is not describing a neutral upgrade. He is rewriting the purpose of public school.
Texas voters can decide whether schools exist to master words and numbers first, or to process feelings and identity on a schedule set by Austin ideologues.
