The Value of School Uniforms

In an indication of growing enthusiasm for school uniform codes, with the two-year-old Long Beach School District policy as an exemplar, President Clinton has directed the Department of Education to distribute manuals touting benefits of the policy to systems across the country. The announcement has drawn fire from critics who accuse the administration of intrusive policies, but the last word on reform will come from the nation’s 16,000 school districts--not from Washington.

Long Beach became the first system in the country to require uniforms for elementary and middle schools. Initial reviews were not all favorable. But communities took notice the following year when the district released statistics showing sharp decreases in campus crime, including fighting, vandalism and weapons and sex offenses. Now a number of states--including Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, New York and Virginia--have approved legislation authorizing the use of uniforms. In Los Angeles County, the Lynwood, Monrovia, Rowland and West Covina school districts have adopted codes. By the end of the year, at least 200 campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District will have uniform codes.

During his campaign-related visit to a Long Beach elementary school last week, Clinton emphasized that uniform policies would help put “discipline and learning back in the schools” and help teach young people that what counts is what “you become on the inside, rather than what you are wearing on the outside.”

True, uniforms are not a panacea for conflicts on campus. Certainly parental involvement plays a crucial role in keeping order at school. But evidence suggests that uniform policies, if they are applied fairly, instill a sense of unity, pride and discipline in students while reducing altercations, jealousies and peer pressure.

When schoolchildren are shot in cold blood over a jacket or a pair of basketball sneakers; when kids spend more time thinking about high fashion than higher learning, when students make personal “statements” in their actions and clothing that detract from education, it pays to ask exactly what values are more important?