James Talarico speaks to the Current before heading out to NIOSA last week. Credit: Michael Karlis

State Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for Texas’ contested U.S. Senate seat, told the Current he’s heartbroken by the closure of San Antonio’s Rhodes Middle School and would fight to improve public education if elected to the upper chamber.

“Rhodes Middle School means a lot to me personally, and I’m heartbroken to hear it’s going to be closing,” Talarico said. “We’re seeing schools close all over the State of Texas — in communities in every corner of the state — because there’s been a systematic attack on public education in Texas.”

San Antonio Independent School District’s Board of Trustees voted 5-2 last month to shutter Rhodes at the end of the current school year to deal with declining enrollment and budget issues.

Talarico, who taught at Rhodes between 2011 and 2013 as a language arts teacher, has made his experience at the low-income West Side campus a major part of his campaign and identity.

“I hope by electing a teacher to the U.S. Senate, a Rhodes Middle School teacher to the U.S. Senate, that we can protect our public schools, ensure that our teachers are making what they’re worth, and ensure that every Texas student has what they need to fulfill their god-given potential,” Talarico said.

The closure of Rhodes comes after SAISD voted to close 15 campuses in 2024 due to declines in student enrollment, underutilized facilities and financial strain.

In addition to shutting down Rhodes, SAISD this year also agreed to hand over operations of three schools — Tafolla Middle School, Ogden and Hirsch elementary schools — to Third Futures Charter Schools. That decision stemmed from concerns that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) would take over SAISD because the three campuses were underperforming.

Lone Star State public school districts are allowed to outsource some of their failing campuses under Texas Bill 1882, passed in 2017. However, former SAISD board member Sarah Sorensen said she’s worried that Third Futures’ controversial tactics to turn campuses around could lead students to drop out of the public school system entirely.

“There will be students who will just decide not to go to school,” Sorensen said during a  West Side town hall hosted by District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo earlier this month.

“That’s my concern; our kids getting punished, saying ‘I don’t want to be here,’ then it being too much work to go somewhere else. And, they will fall through the cracks,” Sorensen said.

Indeed, Third Futures controversial teaching style and disciplinary measures have grabbed headlines in the past. Students on some campuses are barred from speaking to one another between class periods and are forced to answer multiplication questions while waiting in the lunch line, WFAA reported earlier this year.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...