James Talarico

So it originally got proposed two years ago in 2023 during the regular session.

I spoke out against the bill.

I kind of kicked up a bunch of dust about the bill and it went over all over social media.

And I think that pressure ended up delaying the bill enough to where it died on the deadline.

So it didn't pass.

Then it came back this session, 2025, and eventually passed both chambers and got signed by the governor.

So unless it's stopped in the courts, it's going to be law in the state of Texas.

And I, you know, here's what I try.

I try to always take someone's argument at face value and assume best intentions.

This is how I'm able to work in a place like the legislature here in Texas, because I try to listen to what someone's argument is.

And if I'm being charitable...

The best argument for this is that the kids are not all right.

Young people are growing up without the structure of faith, whether it's the Christian faith or Islam or Judaism or Hinduism, whatever it may be.

Students are just less religious than they once were.

People are less religious than they once were.

We know that's a fact.

And so this rise in mental health issues, anxiety, depression among young people, there are folks out there, and I would even put myself in this camp, who say it's that children are growing up in an incoherent universe.

There's not a tradition, a story that helps them make sense of their lives in a profound, almost cosmic way, which is necessary for human beings.

I mean, no matter who you are, you need that structure and that meaning in your life.

And so I recognize that as a problem, but...