Responsibility is key

Shon Byrum isn’t opposed to confined animal feeding operations, but he’d like to see a better balance between their development and the community’s needs.
“I’m not anti-CAFO,” the Democratic challenger for State Representative from District 33 told the Portland Rotary Club on Wednesday. “I know it’s an economic development thing. … But at the same time, are we going to have a greater expense down the road? … What are the CAFOs giving back to our community?”
Byrum, a social studies teacher at Burris Laboratory School on the Ball State University campus, is facing incumbent Republican Greg Beumer and Libertarian candidate Zeb Sutton in the Nov. 4 election.
Beumer was selected by GOP caucus last November to finish the term of Bill Davis, who resigned from the legislature to take a post at the helm of the Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
Both Beumer and Byrum are Randolph County residents, though Beumer grew up in rural Jay County. Sutton is a Jay County resident.
“It is true we’re an agriculture-based economy, and I’m proud of that,” said Byrum. “But the kind of agriculture I grew up with is disappearing. … We’ve got to seek a balance. We don’t want to lose our agricultural heritage, but we don’t want to sacrifice our future.”
He added, “We need to look at why it is that this district is being targeted for CAFO development. … We need to give local officials more control.”
Asked if the Indiana Department of Environmental Management has sufficient inspectors on staff to act as a watchdog, Byrum said he was uncertain but that the ultimate responsibility falls back on individual citizens.
“Citizens have to take responsibility and hold people accountable,” he said.
An award-winning teacher, Byrum decried the current emphasis on standardized testing, saying that nearly all his classroom time each May is now eaten up by administering tests rather than teaching.
Referring to it as “industrialized education,” Byrum called for a greater emphasis on creativity.
“I’m looking for balanced legislation. … I believe we can do better,” he said.
The current school funding formula, he said, “is not exactly equitable.”
Byrum also cited higher and higher textbook fees at a time when families with school-age children are feeling financially pinched.
“At the same time we’ve got a $2 billion surplus in the state,” he said.