...Because nothing says workers' rights like school uniforms!

You can't make this stuff up, people.

An elementary school in a Texas suburb is using an Adopt-a-School grant from the AFL-CIO to make a Big Statement about school uniforms.

As a civil libertarian and economic populist, I have a firm record of opposing school uniforms. But, surprisingly, I'm not against using grants to buy uniforms - as long as uniforms are not compulsory. After all, mandatory uniforms in public schools are unconstitutional.

All this is lost on school officials. When they got the grant, they told students that a uniform requirement would teach them about labor and civil rights struggles of the past. They also said uniforms would instill the meaning of living in a society free of discrimination.

Ending discrimination is a good goal. Yet mandatory uniforms discriminate against students on the basis of clothing style.

Plus, America has a major historical example of uniforms being used to discriminate. Over a century ago, the federal government forced Native American children to attend boarding schools that required them to wear uniforms, forbade them from speaking their native languages, and forced them to change their religion.

Texas could be doing something that really helps workers, such as repealing the far-right "right-to-work" law, but instead they're acting like making schoolchildren wear uniforms somehow advances workers' rights.

I think for myself. I don't let schools tell me what to think.