    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [February 24, 1996]
    [Pages 325-326]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Prior to a Roundtable Discussion on School Uniforms in
    Long Beach, California
    February 24, 1996

        Thank you very much, Mr. Cohn. I am here mostly to listen to all of
    you. And I thank you for taking a little time to meet with me.
        I have spent an enormous amount of my time in the last 18 years now
    since I became a Governor of my State in 1986--'78--in public schools.
    And I devoted a lot of time as President

    [[Page 326]]

    to how we can improve education through higher standards and higher
    expectations, get higher performance. It is obvious that unless the
    school is a safe, disciplined, drug-free learning environment, it's
    impossible for learning to occur.
        And what we have tried to do at the national level is to encourage
    all kinds of grassroots reforms and to make it possible for people to do
    what they think is appropriate in their schools, not to tell schools how
    they should go about improving learning and improving the environment
    but to support them when they wanted to do it. And because there were
    some legal questions raised, I did send the Attorney General out here.
        As you know, I mentioned your school district in the State of the
    Union Address. And today just before I came here, I signed an Executive
    order instructing the Secretary of Education to send to all the school
    districts in the country this manual that we have just done up on school
    uniforms--that we're going to send to all the school districts in the
    country, not to tell them they should do what you have done but to
    encourage them if they want to do it and to show them how to do it.
        I also wanted to say something else. As I said, I mostly want to
    listen to you, but I think it's important to point out that if there is
    a school uniform or a dress code in a school, you not only have the
    chance of reducing the violence, I also think it sends a different
    message to the students. When young people are young, we should try to
    teach them to judge themselves and others based on what's inside them,
    not what's outside them. And in that sense, I think the school uniform
    policy is as valuable for students from well-to-do families as it is for
    students from poor families because of the message it sends.
        And I'm very--I'm pleased to be here, and I wanted to come here
    mostly to honor you for your efforts and hopefully to publicize your
    efforts throughout the country. I'm also anxious to hear from the
    students. I have to tell you I got a lot of hot letters from students--
    [laughter]--after I bragged on your policy. The mail and the E-mail were
    burning up--[laughter]--for the next several days.
        So why don't we start and just hear from everyone who is here.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:02 a.m. in the library at Jackie
    Robinson Academy. In his remarks, he referred to Carl Cohn,
    superintendent, Long Beach School District.