Two Republican candidates seeking the state House District 43 seat both agree that programs such as Common Core curriculum and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act allow federal government too much control of local communities.
Darlene Byrd, 55, of Cabot and Tim Lemons, 51, of Cabot said federal regulations of those education and health-care initiatives stifle economic growth and take away identities of schools and towns.
The two will face off in the May 20 primary election. There is no Democratic challenger; the winner of the primary will take the seat in 2015. Incumbent Davy Carter, R-Cabot, who served as the state speaker of the House, is not running again because of term limits.
District 43, one of the smaller representative districts in the state, includes Cabot and a sliver of western Lonoke County.
Lemons, a member of the Lonoke County Quorum Court and the president of Lemons Engineering Consultants in Cabot, said his experience serving as a justice of the peace gave him a sense of helping others. He served on the building committee while Lonoke County built its $5.5 million jail and has been a past chairman of the county’s budget committee.
“I really grew to love the job,” Lemons said. “I would like to take it to the next level. Let’s see what I can do on the state level.”
Byrd, a nurse and the owner of APN HealthCare in Cabot, has advocated for patients’ care for more than 24 years. She’s also been a mathematics teacher.
“This is the next step,” she said. “Health-care policies will be a major issue for us. … I have the foundation to address those issues.”
A major issue legislators will face during the 2015 General Assembly is the further implementation of Common Core State Standards in Arkansas schools, Lemons said. The effort involves a coalition of 46 states and the District of Columbia working to establish consistent educational standards across the country for what kindergarten through 12th grade students should know in English/language arts and mathematics.
“The curriculum is very much a good thing,” he said.“The basic core is solid. But it is improbable to allow the federal government to take control over our schools.”
Byrd said she also feared too much federal involvement in local schools.
“I’m not opposed to students setting high standards,” she said. “We want them to achieve at the highest level. But my concern is that [Common Core] will tie the hands of teachers so they can’t individualize their teaching. As a math teacher, I had to come up with several different ways to explain the Pythagorean theorem. Some students understand things differently.
“The people who make decisions for education should be our local school board,” she said. “We don’t need Washington, D.C., to tell us how to do things in Cabot.”
Lemons called the Affordable Care Act the “most complex and potentially damaging program in our generation” and said it would curtail growth by small businesses forced into providing expensive insurance.
Byrd said she believes the program will hurt smaller businesses and create a shortage of health-care providers, causing rates to increase.
“The access to health care is a big issue,” she said. “We need to remove these regulatory barriers to allow access to more of the providers. The cost placed on small businesses will be passed on to the consumer. We need to prevent that.”
Both candidates said they will “work hard” to meet voters during the last month before the primary election.
“I believe I am the representative of my district,” Lemons said. “I am a civil engineer and a small-business owner and know firsthand how to balance a budget. … I know I have a good pulse of our community.”
Byrd said her experiences as a teacher and nurse make her the qualified candidate for the District 43 seat.
“I have the qualifications,” she said. “I have the leadership that people can trust.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/19/2014