Dive Brief:
- The Florida House passed a bill Friday that would incentivize districts to require uniforms.
- Under the bill, schools that require uniforms would get $10 more per student added to their per pupil funding and would also be shielded from lawsuits.
- Those in support of the bill believe uniforms could improve school safety, but others are concerned about the financial burden uniforms can impose on parents and taxpayers.
Dive Insight:
Support for the idea that school uniforms increase safety has grown over the past decade. In 2000, for example, only 12% of public schools required uniforms, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). By 2010, that number had swelled to 19%, and it has likely continued to rise since.
The school safety argument stems from the fact that gang violence often falls along color lines (students wearing certain colors to associate with certain groups). There is also the argument that uniforms make it harder for socioeconomic differences to shine through. The flip side is that families are then forced to spend money on uniforms, and if they cannot afford more than one, students often end up coming to school in dirty clothes. There is also the argument that uniforms hurt a student's sense of individuality.
Perhaps the most pervasive argument against uniforms, though, is that it becomes one more thing to knitpick about and can breed a zero-tolerance behavior strategy that leads to kids getting pushed out of school for minor infractions like striped socks or not wearing a belt. In other words, uniform enforcement can create a new set of battles for educators and administrators.
