by Bernie King

Created on: March 03, 2009

Public schools should not require uniforms for students. In a lot of public schools or school districts or school administrative districts as some are called depending on where the school may be located, this could be a very costly item to the overall budget. In this day and age and in our present economy, if it was mandatory for students to wear uniforms then the school or district would have to supply at least four uniforms for every student. Who would be responsible for cleaning them if they are mandatory? Even the costs of the uniforms would vary depending on the vendor. Everyone is screaming about keeping costs down. This would be one way to do it. One also has to know the federal government and state governments are not giving the schools the money they did in past years. Every year at budget time, either the federal or state government calculates different formulas of "per student costs" to provide less to that school or district. Why add an extra burden of uniform costs into the budget which will affect your taxes?

It is not necessary for school to buy uniforms for their students. All the school would need is a defined policy on what is acceptable to wear for clothing. Many schools have policies in place that prohibit logos that are offensive to people to be on clothing. There are others that ban the way certain clothes are worn, such as boys wearing their pants so big and not wearing a belt that leads to exposure of their underwear. Who wants to see that? Some policies spell out that females cannot wear clothing that may expose their breasts, bra straps and underwear. Most schools have policies that ban having logos or writing regarding gang affiliation, drug use, weapons, terrorist expressions ,just to name a few on the student's clothing. A policy such as what I've have just outlined would be far less expensive than buying uniforms for every student.

Another reason is speaking to students, the student themselves don't want uniforms as it deprives them of their individuality. They would rather wear the clothes they like and not what school administrators like. If every student wore the same uniform they would all look the same. There is the arguement that if uniforms are not worn, there is an assumption of a student's wealth based on the clothes he or she wears. I think you would get that anyway, whether a uniform is worn or not because student's find out a lot of information about their classmates and other students in their school on their own economic issues.

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