Buttars misread book, author says

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Aug 25, 2006 | by Deborah Bulkeley Deseret Morning News

Jay P. Greene says state Sen. Chris Buttars was mistaken when he used his book, "Education Myths" to defend a position that there were negative impacts from a landmark civil rights decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"I'm appreciative that the senator is recommending they read the book, but when they read it they won't find what he's saying," Greene said. "In fact, they'll find the opposite."

Buttars, R-South Jordan, had used references to the book when recanting a comment he had made on radio Monday that the 1954 Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in public schools in Brown v. Board of Education was "wrong to begin with."

After Utah minority community leaders raised concerns about Buttars' comment, Buttars said Brown v. Board was "a brilliant, educated decision" but added, citing Greene's book, that there were downsides for some children who were bused from minority-majority schools in their neighborhoods to schools that weren't designed to meet their needs.

Greene told the Deseret Morning News on Thursday that his book isn't about desegregation but about what he calls "common claims in education not supported by evidence. Nothing in the book discusses the affects of segregation or desegregation."

Greene said he mentions Brown v. Board only once, to make a point about his argument that school choice can help achieve better integration.

In that context, Greene writes that a school isn't necessarily integrated just because it has a high ratio of minorities.

"If it were, then many Southern schools during the era of Jim Crow would have been wonderfully integrated due to their very high proportion of minority students," Greene writes. "By this standard, Brown v. Board of Education was a terrible defeat for integration since it broke up an educational system explicitly designed to maximize the number of minority students in many schools. Clearly, what we really mean by integration is having a balanced mix of different racial groups, rather than just greater numbers of certain groups."

Buttars on Thursday apologized if he misread "Education Myths." He expressed frustration at the attention to his statements on Brown v. Board, saying "everybody who touches this gets totally beat up.

"The obvious answer is Brown v. Board of Education was brilliant, whether there was a downside, or not, I'm through talking about that," Buttars said. "It isn't even something on my mind, it hasn't been on my mind ever, as far as legislation. It is over and done with, and I don't think it's a problem in Utah."

James Evans, chairman of the Salt Lake County Republican Party, grew up as an African-American in South Carolina and said he and Buttars are both among those who "applaud the defeat of segregation."

He said Buttars has always treated him with respect as a colleague and he believes Buttars was simply trying to explain that the implementation of Brown v. Board wasn't perfect.

"We should discuss where the pitfalls have been so we can become even better when we can try to bring different groups into integration," Evans said.

Archie Archuleta, chairman of the Utah Coalition of La Raza, was among minority community leaders concerned about Buttars' comments on Brown v. Board. He said Buttars is misguided if he believes racism is no longer an issue, though he added that today's segregation in Utah generally has more to do with class than race.

"We have segregated schools all up and down the Wasatch Front," Archuleta said. "If you think about the number of kids in west-side schools and on the east side, of course they're segregated."

E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com