Bill Clinton: “Let me just inject a couple of facts here, in case any of you are thinking about this. First of all, there was not a…”

“Let me just inject a couple of facts here, in case any of you are thinking about this. First of all, there was not a uniform school district policy. He allowed every school, by some process or another, to choose their uniforms. And they were basically just comfortable school clothes, like I saw one of the young people was in a--the uniform for the boys was blue slacks and a white shirt with a collar every day. It wasn't--and there was some variation within that. And then the uniform for the girls was the same thing or a skirt. And each school got to choose their own colors and got to decide what the parameters of the uniform were. If the school chose, the teachers and the principal also wore the uniform, but that varied by school. But the young man that he mentioned, for example, said his school was located in a high crime area where the gangs associated gang membership with the colors red and blue, so the school chose black, white, and green for the school uniform. And to see this young, attractive African-American student saying, ``I don't have to look over my shoulder anymore when I walk to and from school; I feel safe,'' that's worth something. The other student who spoke was a young--I think a 13-year-old student, who is a terrifically powerful young woman who said that she felt one of the reasons that the learning had gone up and discipline and behavior problems had gone down is that it gave all the children a sense of unity and that all of them were being judged based on what was on the inside, rather than on the outside. It's interesting. And in that sense, she said she thought the children who came from well-to-do families were helped as much by the policy as children who came from poor families. And they also had to set up a system so kids who came from families who couldn't afford it and all that, and they covered all that. But if you have any interest in this I would urge you to write to Carl because it's hard to quarrel with the results and what the kids said. Maybe it's not the thing for every school district and every school, but they had a lot of problems and to see them drop in a breathtaking fashion I think is a real tribute to the courage and vision of the people of that school district. And I thank you for what you did. [Reverend Jackson stated that school uniforms would have a positive impact regardless of a student's economic background. He also suggested that students learn to sew their uniforms themselves.]”