Houston Democratic state Rep. Al Edwards one-upped his cheerleader foes by passing a watered down version of his no-sexy-cheerleaders bill out of committee this week. Nobody supported it but him and the Eagle Forum, but the Public Ed Committee in the Texas House kicked it out anyway, if that tells you anything about who they're listening to.
Neither the committee substitute nor minutes for the April 5 hearing are online yet, so I can't tell what changes were made to the bill or who voted for this piece of self-indulgent puffery. Edwards has the cheerleaders on the defensive, though, heading out of Round One.
Whatever happens, I guarantee the House floor debate on this bill will be fun to watch.
UPDATE: Here's the brief Dallas news coverage. Apparently the new language would have the state education commissioner (because, you know, he's basically just lounging around right now), calling individual schools to debate whether their dance teams were too sexy. I'm still not sure what triggers this extra review. If it's complaints, this could become a full-time occupation for the good commissioner. In any event, the committee vote was unanimous. Houston Democrat Scott Hochberg joined five Republican colleagues to recommend a toothless HB 1476 to the full House.
Nuther UPDATE: Pam reports via email that, "The substitute basically gets rid of the second and third parts of the bill, leaving only that sexually suggestive performance by cheerleaders or similar groups is prohibited. No real consequences to speak of."
As important as cheerleading is to Texans, Mr. Edwards must be creating quite a stew in the Lone Star State. We in Seattle are getting a kick (no pun intended!)out of Mr. Edward's crusade.
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