Together with other reforms being pursued by our schools, such as renewed emphasis upon basic skills, student accountability and respect for others, our new required uniforms should substantially improve the learning environment at all of our 56 elementary and 14 middle schools and enhance the safety of 58,000 students. They focus attention upon learning and away from such distractions as fashion competition and gang intimidation. Requiring uniforms enhances school security by permitting identification of non-students who try to enter the campus. Weapons have been concealed in jumpsuits, overcoats, and baggy gang clothing. Uniforms help to create unity amid diversity by easing ethnic and cultural tensions and encouraging values of tolerance and civility.
Uniforms also bridge differences between students and families of widely disparate income levels.
Students from modest economic backgrounds are often the target of exclusion or ridicule on account of their dress. Even from the earliest grades, children feel the pressure to conform to idealized standards of dress, which may be beyond their family's means. Uniforms eliminate this pressure and allow the attention of students to be directed to learning and growing. Affordable school uniforms can reduce clothing costs substantially. The average clothing cost per child in schools with a student uniform is markedly less than that in schools without uniforms.