Other cities have experimented with voluntary uniform programs that offer parents the option of sending their children to school wearing uniforms. Uniforms promote equality and a sense of community, so students can focus on schoolwork. School uniforms also ease the financial burdens on parents, who otherwise are forced to spend hundreds of dollars outfitting their children in the latest designer clothes. Uniforms also add to security since it is harder to conceal weapons while wearing a uniform and school administrators can easily detect non-students. These factors create a safer, more open learning environment.
Programs requiring mandatory uniforms in public schools are detrimental to the students.
Mandatory uniform rules enforce conformity, which hinders creative abilities and limits personal expression. The argument that uniforms are linked to academic success lacks scientific backing. Our schools desperately need financial assistance, but the money should not be wasted on clothing. Motivation, commitment and parental involvement are the most important factors in scholastic achievement. In the 1996-97 school year, three percent of the nation's public schools had mandatory school uniform policies.