Principals, teachers and parents are all anxious to reverse the decline of public schools.  In their desperation, some are grasping for feel-good measures like school uniforms.  The idea is to make public school children look so much like private school ones, they'll start getting similar test scores.

Of course, private school students perform better than their public school counterparts because of the money in their pockets - not the clothes on their backs.  A new outfit won't improve teacher pay or school funding, any more than a law forcing the homeless to wear tuxedoes would cure poverty.

"We need to be dealing with kids who cannot read or write," Parent Lisa Haver told the Associated Press.  She has two children in a Philadelphia, where the city just voted to require uniforms. "People who make suggestions like (uniforms) are people who don't spend any time in school."

There are many problems with imposing a uniform, including the fact that not everyone can afford them.  That's what happened at one school in New York.  Because not everyone could buy matching shorts, the principal was forced to rescind the dress code when temperatures heated up.

On top of everything, these policies may be unconstitutional.  The ACLU of Pennsylvania has said it would consider challenging Philadelphia's dress code as a violation of student rights.  Some school districts avoid such lawsuits by allowing parents to opt out of uniforms, but this obviously eliminates any of the supposed benefits of the policy.

Students should push the limits of their imagination throughout their education.  To turn public schools into houses of conformity goes against the ideals of freedom and democracy.  America should say no to a student body patterned after The Stepford Wives, and concentrate on meaningful education reforms that work.