Jeanetta Williams, a voucher opponent and president of the NAACP's Salt Lake branch, said the videotaped comments shocked her and she believes Byrne meant that minorities who don't graduate should be burned or thrown away.
Did you need the NAACP identifier, or could you just guess it? It used to be on such a high pedestal, now it's fallen so far.
Here's what Mr. Byrne really said, and you can see for yourself if Ms. Williams' interpretation is one a reasonable person would make:
On the YouTube video clip, Byrne says: "Right now, 40 percent of Utah minorities are not graduating from high school. You may as well burn those kids. That's the end of their life. That's the end of their ability to achieve in this society if they do not get a high school education. You might as, just throw the kids away."
Mr. Byrne explains his comments this way:
"I very clearly said the system is throwing away 40 percent of the minority kids because they're not graduating. I'm saying that I'm against throwing kids away.
"People against vouchers are in favor of throwing the kids away," Byrne said.
You make the call.
Update, 10/29/07: Please see the update to this post. Included in the linked article is the fact that Utah is the only state without a "dropout factory", defined as a school where no more than 40% of the students who start as freshmen finish as seniors.
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