James Talarico likes to say that he taught classes with 45 kids, but school records show that’s not the case.
By Catholics for Catholics
James Talarico, the Texas Democrat Senate nominee has constantly said he taught 45 students in a crowded single classroom without enough desks, but according to a Daily Wire story, buried nine paragraphs down in a profile on his experience as a teacher, The New York Times cited school records showing the largest class period assigned to the former middle school teacher had just 30 students.
As a talking point, Talarico often cites his two years teaching sixth-grade English at a poor San Antonio middle school, an event he regularly uses to contend that he understands the challenges facing public schools. The Times published a big profile on Wednesday focused on Talarico’s short period as teacher at Rhodes Middle School, and the writers spent just a few paragraphs on Talarico’s fib about the classroom size.
“At one point, I had 45 students in one classroom,” Talarico said during a CNN town hall earlier this month. He added that students had to sit on the air-conditioning unit because there were not enough desks, calling the situation an indictment of education in “the wealthiest country in human history.”
Still, the limits of that experience have drawn inquiry before. Republican state Rep. Carl Tepper questioned in January if Talarico’s two years in the classroom made him eligible to present himself as an education expert.
“I would never claim to be an expert in national security because of my six years in the Air Force, just as he should never claim to be an expert in education because of two years in the classroom,” Tepper told the Texas Tribune.
The new reporting comes as Talarico faces Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in a closely watched Texas Senate race that could decide the control of the chamber.
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