Sen. Chris Buttars on Tuesday recanted his comment that Brown v. Board of Education was "wrong to begin with," saying he believes the decision that desegregated the nation's public schools was monumental but not perfect.
"I thought, my goodness, it was a great decision, but there is a down side," Buttars said. "I made one sentence; I guess I didn't phrase it right."
Buttars said Tuesday he was surprised when asked about the monumental 1954 Supreme Court decision Monday on KVNU-AM radio in Logan while discussing judicial activism and the roles of the courts.
On the radio, Buttars said "Well, I think Brown v. Board of Education is wrong to begin with," then declined to discuss the matter further, citing time constraints.
On Tuesday, Buttars told the Deseret Morning News, "I think Brown v. Board of Education was a monumental step forward. It took that kind of a bullet to break through that segregation wall."
But Buttars said there were drawbacks to desegregation for some children who were taken out of neighborhood schools where they were in the majority, something he says is detailed in the book "Education Myths" by Jay Greene.
"He talks about how you had schools in the South that were really geared toward the special needs of minority kids," Buttars said. "Then all of a sudden you bused half those kids to a different school that maybe got more money, but they weren't geared to the needs of those kids."
Still, many were taken aback by Buttars' comments, including some Utahns who attended segregated schools.
Jeanetta Williams, president of the Salt Lake Branch of the NAACP, recalled being unable to finish reading schoolbooks with torn-out pages, handed down from white schools when Oklahoma schools were segregated.
And Forrest Crawford, education professor at Weber State University, doubted he'd hold his current position if it weren't for Brown v. Board and the civil rights movement that followed.
"I experienced enough of that segregation to know the underlying intent and debilitating impact it has," said Crawford, who grew up in Oklahoma. "The spirit of Brown really is sort of the blueprint for how we ought to celebrate and access the success of student achievement, particularly achievement among underrepresented students."
Crawford acknowledged the Brown ruling wasn't a perfect formula, in large part because the systemic infrastructure wasn't perfect to facilitate integration. He added that neighborhood schools may have been psychosocially more comfortable, but they were also underfunded.
"When you consider the time and place for Brown, I do not think those kids staying in their neighborhoods would have had equal opportunities, equal facilities, equal resources," Crawford said.
The governor's office was also "taken aback" by the comments, according to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s spokesman, Mike Mower.
"Equal treatment under the law is one of the most important objectives of any democracy. Brown v. Board of Education was one of the seminal events that helped us achieve this ideal," Mower said.
Former Rep. Duane Bourdeaux, who left the Legislature this year, said he'd challenge Buttars to pay more attention to those students who have fallen behind.
"When looking at at-risk kids, we are not doing enough," Bourdeaux said.
Teresa Theurer, a member of the State Board of Education, said Buttars' initial comment went against efforts the state has taken to help all students achieve as the schools become increasingly diverse.
"It made me sad," Theurer said. "As a board we recognized that (inequality) exists, and we try to help all the students."
Buttars said in his call for making judges more accountable to the public for their records, he doesn't intend to limit their ability to rule bad laws unconstitutional. He said the Supreme Court was right to call for public school integration in Brown v. Education.
He declined to cite an example of an "activist judge" but mentioned a case in which a hunter was lectured by a judge on animal cruelty as an example of conduct the public needs to be aware of.
"We were talking about what is the role of the court and what is the role of the Legislature," Buttars said. "Legislators create law; judges are not to create law. ... I was talking about judges who don't follow the law and go out there and write their own law."
But Williams questioned what exactly Buttars means by judicial activism, noting that Brown v. Board was so unpopular in some communities that public schools were shut down to avoid integration.
In that case the Supreme Court interpreted the law, Williams said, and overturned it at a time when "separate but equal was the norm. It was the law of the land."
Contributing: Lisa Riley Roche
E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com