Highlighting a crime-fighting idea spreading across America, President Clinton on Saturday advocated requiring youths to wear school uniforms as a way to make teenagers "stop killing each other over designer jackets."
"We must get violence out of our schools and we must put discipline and learning back in our schools," the president said. He directed the Education Department to distribute a manual to all of the nation's 16,000 school districts suggesting how they could make school uniforms mandatory.Clinton promoted the school-uniform idea on a trip financed by his re-election campaign through California and Washington state.
His endorsement of school uniforms was a boost for an idea intended to instill discipline and order in schools and reduce competitiveness and jealousy. It also linked Clinton with the popular "family values" theme.
It was the Clinton's 22nd visit to California during his presidency and his second to Washington in 10 days. Both states have presidential primaries March 26.
In Seattle, Clinton was scheduled to appear with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who was announcing a corporate gift of more than $10 million in software and technical assistance to 32 community colleges across the state.
The president was also expected to address the issue of timber cutting in old-growth forests and urge repeal of a measure that permits such cutting, White House spokesman Mike McCurry said.
The California stop came at an ideal moment for Clinton.
He awoke to a front-page story in the Los Angeles Times saying that the state's once-battered economy has recovered strongly, regaining more than the 500,000-plus jobs lost during the early 1990s. A color picture of a smiling president was next to the article.
Clinton spoke about school uniforms in his weekly radio address and in a speech at Jackie Robinson Academy in Long Beach.
Two years ago, Long Beach became the first school district in the country to require elementary and middle school students to wear uniforms to class. The idea quickly spread to other cities.
Clinton mentioned Long Beach's school-uniform policy in his State of the Union address last month. He told the students, "I got a lot of hot letters from students after I bragged on your policy. The mail and the e-mail were burning up for the next several days."
Mandatory or voluntary school uniform policies have been adopted with promising results by schools in Baltimore; Cincinnati; Dayton, Ohio; Detroit; Los Angeles; Miami; Memphis, Tenn.; Milwaukee; Nashville, Tenn.; New Orleans; Phoenix; Seattle; and St. Louis, Clinton said.
Pointing to a rash of crimes where youths were shot for a pair of sneakers or a designer jacket, Clinton said, "School uniforms are one step that may be able to help break this cycle of violence, truancy and disorder by helping students to understand that what really counts is what kind of people they are, what's on the inside."
He said his wife, Hillary, has been advocating school uniforms for 10 years. "Thanks to you," he told Long Beach parents and students, "I have to listen to, `I told you so.' "
The president's initiative does not offer any federal aid for purchasing school uniforms. That cost is left to the schools and parents.