A bill encouraging school boards to require students to wear uniforms was approved by the Assembly's Education Committee Tuesday.
The measure, proposed by Assembly Majority Leader Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha, is designed to make schools safer and make children more obedient. The bill now goes to the floor of the Assembly as early as March 12, at which time it is likely to pass, proponents say.
Uniforms are already being tried in 13 Milwaukee schools. And experiments with uniforms in California and Texas show that uniforms are cheaper for parents, create less competition among children on the playground, and dramatically reduce crime on school grounds, Jensen told the committee two weeks ago.
President Bill Clinton has endorsed the idea as has the American Federation of Teachers, the nation's second largest teachers' union.
Jensen's bill (AB824) allows local school boards to require uniforms, orders boards set up ways to assist families who can't afford the uniforms, and establishes exemptions for students who won't, or can't, comply with the rule. An amendment proposed by Rep. Rebecca Young, D-Madison, also requires the new state Education Department to study whether uniforms work as proponents suggest.
The measure passed the committee 10-2 but wasn't universally embraced.
"This creates conformity and uniformity and that is not desirable in a free society," said Rep. Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids, who is second-in-command of Assembly Democrats. "We want to impose a standard on children that we do not impose on adults. Some legislators around here dress like they just got off the tractor."
"This is nothing but pandering," said Rep. David Plombon, D-Eau Claire. "This doesn't allow school boards to do anything more than they can already do."
In the last state budget, the Legislature gave school boards the power to set any policy they see fit to improve education provided those policies aren't specifically banned by state law, he said.
It's true, said Mary Sowinski, a lobbyist for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards. That's why the group representing the state's 426 school boards hasn't endorsed the bill. "We feel we already have the power. None of our members are asking about this," she said.
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