Wednesday, November 6, 1985
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
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Gamine coverage
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r I he lawsuit filed over Nebraska football and basketball
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Droaacasimg ngnis raises questions auuui ine univer
sity's profits from intercollegiate sports.
Musicradio of Nebraska Inc., which operates radio
station KZKX in Seward, seeks damages of at least $450,000
from the NU Board of Regents, KFAB Broadcasting Co. and
XFOR Radio.
The lawsuit alleges that KFAB, which owns exclusive rights
to broadcast Husker football and basketball games, acts as a
"wholesaler" of Nebraska sports broadcasts.
KFAB then resells the broadcasting rights to members of its
Nebraska FootballBasketball Network and earns substantial
profits by selling advertising for the network, according to the
suit.
Don Bryant, UNL sports information director, said that until
1982, when the exclusive contract was made with KFAB, four
stations had broadcast rights and the university received a
total of about $30,000 to $40,000 a year. The four stations did not
compete for the rights they had always had them, he said.
The regents decided to change to an exclusive system to
earn more revenue, and also because it was tough to get
pressbox space for four stations at away games, Bryant said.
KFAB won the contract with a high bid of about $500,000 a
year, Bryant said.
Bryant said UNL could not make money by eliminating the
middle man (KFAB) because no one would bid half a million
dollars for non-exclusive rights.
True, no single station would bid that much, but the bids of
four stations probably could surpass half a million dollars.
The university must maximize its football and basketball pro
fits so the money can be used to support other sports and
university programs.
But the broadcast rights issue goes beyond money for the
university.
The lawsuit alleges that KFAB's Nebraska FootballBasket
ball Network restricted the territories in which radio stations
can sell advertising for UNL footballbasketball broadcasts.
For example, KZKX was not allowed to sell ads in Lincoln
because that was KFOR's area.
If advertising areas are being restricted, the football net
work is violating anti-trust laws. Radio stations in low advertis
ing areas are at a disadvantage because they cannot sell ads in
nearby lucrative cities.
The regents have nothing to do with the advertising restric
tions, but they should consider their policy of granting exclu
sive broadcasting rights.
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1SS5 DAILY NEBRASKAN
Voucher system increases quality, lowers cost
Teachers want the goodies
If one were to pay heed to the typical
teacher union prattle, the past and
future of U.S. political culture owes
itself to continuing "public" educa
tion, as it is wrongly called.
Strangely, "mere" education is not
sufficient, according to these, insular
pundits. This is because the salvation
of the state rests only in a particular
species of education; namely, government-controlled
education.
Jim
Rogers
The messianic claims of the National
Education Association about "public"
schools notwithstanding, most Amer
icans see education as a goal and pub
lic education is merely one way of
reaching it. Thus, irrespective of
whether "public" schools are the
bumper sticker says "an American
tradition," many Americans are com
mitted to education, not just to the
preservation of public schools.
Perversely enough, however, propo
nents of "public" education speak dis
paragingly of the notion that educating
the young is the primary purpose of
public education, when they simply are
talking among themselves and not to
parents.
For example, R. Freeman Butts, a
professor at Columbia Teachers Col
lege wrote in a 1979 issue of Phi Delta
Kappa that "the idea of public educa
tion was not to give parents more con
trol over education, not to promote the
individual needs and interests of child
ren, not to prepare for a better job, not
to get into college." Bather, he wrote,
"the prime purpose for a public rather
than a private, education was politi
cal "
Similarly, says economics professor
Charles Baird, teacher unions and
"especially the NEA, have let it be known
that they are really not concerned with
the education of children." He cites a
bulletin sent out by a local chapter of
the Oregon Education Association that
stated: "The major purpose of our asso
ciation is not the education of child
ren; rather, it is or ought to be the
extension andor preservation of our
members' rights. We earnestly care
about the kids and learning, but that is
secondary to the other goals."
Now, it certainly is not inherently
wrong for teacher unions to be con
cerned with their members' pay and
working conditions over children's edu
cation. Yet don't let them pretend oth
erwise when they participate in the
political decision-making process sur
rounding state-sponsored education.
The public and policymakers must be
aware that teacher unions are not
interested in true educational reform;
that they are, at root, interested in
manipulating political control over edu
cation to deliver more goodies to them
selves. Recent public opinion polls have, for
the first time indicated greater public
support than opposition for the use of
educational vouchers in educational
finance. An educational voucher sys-
USSR ignores Iiuiman
tern would give children's parents a
piece of paper representing dollars for
education. The parents then would use
the voucher at any school of their cho
ice. The school would redeem the
voucher for payment from the state.
In 1977, British Columbia imple
mented such a plan. According to
economist Baird, the people there "have
enjoyed lower educational expenses
and substantially improved educational
quality as a result of the plan."
Similarly, the President's Advisory
Panel on Financing Elementary and
Secondary Education reported in May
1983 that non-state schools provide a
" 'competition base' which positively in
fluences the quality of public educa
tion." Also, by eliminating the unfair double
taxation on parents who opt out of the
state school system, a voucher system
would promote the discharge of paren
tal responsibility in education.
Of course, teacher unions vehemently
oppose voucher systems, despite in
creased educational quality, lower costs
to society and liberty and fairness
interests in allowing real educational
choice.
The teacher unions' intentional ob
struction of educational reform is out
rageous. Other labor unions, in pursuit
of insular gain, may add a nickel or so
to the cost of a loaf of bread. But
teacher unions, in their opposition to
vouchers, attack the interests of the
United States in the succeeding gener
ation. To the teacher unions the United
States can only say, "kindly step aside."
Rogers Is a UNL graduate student in
economics and a law student.
It has been said there are two ways
to combat darkness: Be a candle or
the mirror that reflects it. At the
summit, President Reagan must be the
mirror reflecting the few candles not
yet snuffed out by Mikhail Gorbachev's
neo-Stalinism. One such flame flicker
ing low is Sergei Khodorovich.
George .
Will
In 1977, Khodorovich became man
ager of the Russian Social Fund. That
post was open because the previous
occupant had been arrested. The Social
Fund, based in Zurich, is a charity
founded in 1974 by Aleksandr Solzhe
nitsyn and funded by worldwide royal
ties from "The Gulag Archipelago." It
does nothing other than support fami
lies of prisoners of conscience in the
Soviet Union, all .of them victims of
Soviet disregard of the Helsinki accords.
On March 1, 1983, after 15 months in
a KGB investigation prison, Valeri
Repin, manager of the fund for Lenin
grad, was put on Soviet TV to make one
of those "confessions" that loom so
large in the Soviet charade of justice.
Appearing broken, Repin said he had
confessed "with the help of an investi
gator." He "confessed" that the fund is,
as the Kremlin constantly has charged,
a "Western spy organization." Five
weeks later Khodorovich also was
arrested.
In the years before the arrest, Repin
had been fired from his job, harassed in
rights
pacts
his home and provoked in the streets
by KGB thugs posing as thugs. In prison
he was beaten regularly by people
gifted at leaving no visible traces on
victims. His face was unmarked. The
rest of his body was almost entirely
black and blue. Ribs were smashed
Repin received a "light" sentence of
three years in a "strict regime" con
centration camp on the Arctic coast.
That term is due to end next year. But
in a transparent trick to confuse for
eign critics, the Kremlin has amended
the criminal code to permit arbitrary
extension of "light" prison terms.
Vicious sentences are imposed piece
meal under a law concerning "mali
cious insubordination to the demands
of the administration of a corrective
labor institution.
Please see WILL on 5