Some questions about the Fair Pay to Play Act: Letters
Some questions about the Fair Pay to Play Act: Letters

Re “College athletes will get skin in the game” (Editorial, Oct. 11):

Currently, Division I athletes on a full ride get tuition, room and board, textbooks, materials, apparel, additional food (football) and tutoring. This could be as much as $280,000 at a private university and about $180,000 at a public university. They graduate or leave school with no college debt.

The Fair Pay to Play Act allows students to profit from the use of their name, image and likeness and sign with a licensed agent. No one would argue with a student being paid if a video game producer used their likeness.

However, the students who will profit from this are the top tier athletes who will probably go on to play professional sports. How many endorsements or agent contracts will go to the third-string right guard on any Division I football team, or the tenth man on the basketball team who averages 2.06 points per game? Don’t these players work just as hard or as long in practice as the quarterback or star basketball player.

What about female athletes? Does the rower or tennis player deserve the endorsement or agent contract? Do you think she will get one? What about other Division I programs like CSU Fullerton or UC Irvine? Is this bill fair to those athletes? Do they get skin in the game?

The elephant in the room is recruiting. Will there be a bidding war over a star basketball player or running back? The shoe companies who sponsor college athletic programs want their brand to be a winner, so is there a limit to the amount an endorsement contract can be?

The Act has all of these questions and more, with no answers, but lots of unanticipated consequences. Why should this law be replicated across the country as your editorial suggests?

Barry Cadwallader, Upland

School bullying isn’t unique to Moreno Valley

I have considered Moreno Valley my home since 1968. I don’t live there now but I remain active in a service club there and in Moreno Valley affairs.

The bullying issue in schools isn’t unique to Moreno Valley. However, the ill-informed shouts and name-calling by parents and citizens amount to nothing but verbal bullying themselves.Teaching youngsters how to behave begins at home. It is too easy for parents to blame schools for not doing what they, the parents, should be doing. Teachers and administrators can only be one place at a time. They are not at fault for failing to prevent every incident of bad behavior.

Dick Heil, Corona

Schools fail to address bullying appropriately

Re “School leaders blasted by parents” (News, Oct. 16):

The article states: “At meetings after both attacks, district officials have insisted that Moreno Valley Unified has a robust anti-bullying policy.”Seriously? Did the officials say this with a straight face? With children regularly being assaulted, and now murdered on their campuses? One wonders what a non-robust program would produce.

Bullying has been a problem since my children were in school, years ago, and continues to exist for the same reason it did then: schools refuse to identify the bullies (vs. their victims) for fear of retribution/legal action by their parents. Period.

Thus, the bullies are never punished. Instead, schools wash their hands of the problem by pointing to “robust” — and totally useless — anti bullying programs. Until this changes, bullying will continue. For shame!

— Julie Gilbart, Murrieta

Dems destroyed the state

Re “California’s leftward trend continues” (Opinion, Oct. 15):

Why is it that under the control of the Democrats over the last decade in California, we have endured explosions of homeless and undocumented populations, our taxes are the highest in the nation while our infrastructure remains tattered and outdated?

We also have an extensive housing shortage crisis and yet voters here continue to elect left-wing politicians, which has created a blue supermajority that perpetuates the same failed philosophy?

It is no coincidence that “blue” also means “sad” or “depressed.”

— Bob Cunningham, Riverside

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