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Obama Sparks a Belt-Wearing Trend at Florida High School

By Alyson Klein — April 07, 2009 1 min read
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It’s not clear yet whether the Obama administration’s policies will be able to raise achievement, but the president has inspired some students to pull up something else: their pants.

Last year, in an interview with MTV, then-candidate Obama suggested that, while there doesn’t need to be legislation requiring students to wear clothing that fits, “brothers should pull up their pants.’'

That snippet played during the morning announcements at Plantation High School in Broward County last month. And teachers, students, and community leaders handed out belts between classes, donated by Walmart.

I wonder if this will make it into Arne Duncan’s standard stump speech. He likes to talk about the “Barack effect” and suggests that the Obamas have made education “cool.”

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