All uniformly in agreement

Insight on the News, March 25, 1996 by Paul Bedard

President Clinton has thrust the federal government into local school-board debates about dress codes, declaring that all 16,000 U.S. public-school districts should consider the issue of mandatory student uniforms.

"When you want to do it, we're there for you and we think you should do it," Clinton told California school officials in late February, cautioning that his plan is "not a national government mandate." The president mentioned student uniforms in his State of the Union address but says Hillary Rodham Clinton hand urged him for a decade to speak out on the subject. While he and the first lady send their teenage daughter to the private Sidwell Friends School, which does not require students to wear uniforms, Clinton says he speaks from experience on the advantages of school uniforms.

"I believe I have spent more time in classrooms, more time listening to teachers and parents and students, than any person who had the privilege to hold this office," he said during a visit to the Jackie Robinson Academy in Long Beach, Calif., which requires students to wear white shirts and blue pants, shorts or dresses.

School districts and legal groups across the country are fighting about mandatory uniforms. Some parents don't want the government telling them how to dress their children, and legal-defense groups argue that poor families can't afford uniforms that can cost up to $40 each.

But parents and students in Long Beach say the policy has helped curb crime and boost grades. "It's a very good idea," says James Sutton, a parent of two. "It helps to prevent a lot of gang activity for kids because they aren't paying attention to what the other kids are wearing. They are learning, instead."

His son and daughter agree. "I like it; it works," says Danielle, 9. "I think it's all right. No one hassles me about clothes now," says Jammal, 12.

Nevertheless, Sutton says he believes the decision to require uniforms should be a local one. "It's more a parental and school decision because when it comes to the government, it goes too far."

Long Beach School Superintendent Carl Cohn says the new policy, which covers 58,500 students, has cut crime. Jackie Robinson Academy student Melissa Machit, who introduced the president to his audience of about 4,000, says the uniforms have created a "greater sense of unity" among students. Clinton concurred. "Schoolwork became more important for students than showing off what they were resenting what someone else was wearing," he said, adding that uniforms don't have to stamp out individuality. "Instead, they slowly teach our young people one of life's most important lessons: that what really counts is what you are and what you can become on the inside, not what you are wearing on the outside."