02/03/99
Dallas Morning News / Associated Press

Uniform opinion

Arkansas senator's bill would require districts to vote on school apparel issue

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Seated on the floor in a circle, fourth-graders at Bale Elementary School listen attentively to their teacher read Sarah Plain and Tall .

It's not an unusual classroom scene, but there is a difference this year: The students are all wearing uniforms - navy or khaki pants or skirts, and clean, white shirts, tucked in.

To principal Barbara Anderson, there's an air of order around the school, and it's the uniforms that have made a big difference. She said the 350 students, from prekindergarten through the sixth grade, take more pride in themselves. They no longer come to school strutting their designer clothes and high tops.

"It's amazing. It seems like kids respect each other more. It seems like it puts kids on an even keel," Ms. Anderson said.

More and more school districts are requiring students to wear school uniforms, and state Sen. Kevin Smith, D-Stuttgart, is proposing legislation that would require school districts to vote on the issue in school elections this year.

The push comes after a wave of school violence in Arkansas and around the country.

Last school year, 12 students and two teachers were killed - and 50 others were injured - in shootings at Pearl, Miss.; West Paducah, Ky.; Jonesboro, Ark.; Edinboro, Pa.; Fayetteville, Tenn.; and Springfield, Ore.

President Clinton has urged school districts to use uniforms to increase discipline and improve security.

In the Little Rock School District, students at more than two dozen schools wear uniforms.

Long Beach delighted

The picture from the Long Beach, Calif., Unified School District - the first public school district in the country to use uniforms in all its elementary and middle schools - is rosy, officials said. The district has 90,000 students and is the third-largest school district in California.

"Youngsters are getting along better with one another," said district spokesman Richard Van Der Laan. "Kids from different backgrounds, they're not putting each other down or ridiculing you because of what you're wearing."

Mr. Van Der Laan said that, since students from kindergarten through eighth grades began wearing uniforms in 1994, the district has seen a 91 percent drop in school crime, a record improvement in student attendance, fewer student suspensions and some increases in test scores.

"Our schools are safer, better places because of the uniforms," he said.

Mr. Smith has sons in second and third grades at Stuttgart, which doesn't use uniforms, and he is concerned about school safety. He believes uniforms will help improve academic performance, beef up discipline and eliminate gangs.

"It [regular dress] still sets up sort of a real difference in class distinctions. It's just not necessary. I think we should stress to children that material goods and clothes are secondary, to say the least, to education," he said.

His bill would require school districts to put the issue of school uniforms to a vote in this year's school elections. Districts that already have uniforms would not have to have a vote. His bill also would allow school patrons, after this year, to petition to put school uniforms to a vote.

Not a cure-all

Mr. Smith conceded that uniforms might not be right for every district. He also knows that school uniforms are not a proven measure for improving school safety, can be costly for some students and may raise concerns about a student's individual expression. All those issues could be decided at the local level, he said.

"My main goal is to get school districts and school boards to address this issue and not put it off. We have studied it to death," he said.

The Arkansas School Boards Association doesn't have a problem with school uniforms but isn't keen on Mr. Smith's bill. Association Director Tommy Venters, the former state Education Department director, said the association believes that school uniforms are a local issue and the state shouldn't mandate a vote.

Mr. Venters said uniforms have merit but school districts would have to address some legal issues in any school-uniform policy. "You can't kick a kid out of school for not having a uniform if they don't have the money to buy a uniform," he said.

Rison School Superintendent Scotty Holderfield said about half of his student body would probably have a hard time paying for uniforms, which means the school district would have to provide uniforms or the money for them. He said the district could make uniforms voluntary but that would defeat the purpose. After some discussion, Rison school officials dropped the idea.

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