Reluare joi, 28 aprilie 1983

News Analysis

Date: 28 April 1983

By Edward B. Fiske, Special To the New York Times

Edward

The National Commission on Excellence in Education's assertion that a ''tide of mediocrity'' is imperiling American schools has put the Reagan Administration in a somewhat uneasy position: It is being asked to provide leadership in a field that it has declared is not really a concern of the Federal Government. While affirming that the support and management of public education is essentially a state and local matter, commission members were clearly looking to the Administration to encourage educational reform. Initial indications were, though, that the White House remains primarily concerned with issues such as tuition tax credits, school prayer and abolishing the Department of Education -issues that the commission bypassed as irrelevant to the main task. In a document entitled ''A Nation at Risk'' and released Tuesday, the 18-member commission assailed American education as a wasteland of low expectations, mediocre achievement and misguided priorities and said the country had engaged in ''unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament.'' The language was frankly intended to make the improvement of education into a political issue at all levels.

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News Analysis

Date: 29 April 1983

By Philip Shabecoff, Special To the New York Times

Philip Shabecoff

The crisis that recently swept the top leadership from the Environmental Protection Agency could well be a watershed for environmentalism in the United States. For the first time, the environment as an issue emerged, if only temporarily, as a dominant feature on the nation's political landscape. It was an issue that captured and held the public's attention for weeks and preoccupied the Government at its highest levels. The latest New York Times/CBS News Poll this month shows that public concern about the environment, already high, has increased significantly. In the survey, 58 percent of those responding said they agreed that ''protecting the environment is so important that requirements and standards cannot be too high and continuing environmental improvements must be made, regardless of cost.'' The last time the question was asked, in September 1981, 45 percent of the respondents agreed.

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News Analysis

Date: 28 April 1983

By Hedrick Smith, Special To the New York Times

Hedrick Smith

President Reagan used the extraordinary platform of a joint session of Congress tonight to try to preserve his Central American policy rather than to proclaim a broad new strategy or to signal a shift in his position. Privately, his advisers acknowledged that the President had felt compelled to resort to this risky political tactic in order to get his case before the American people and to try to arouse both the public and Congress to the magnitude of the United States' stakes in the region and what he called the ''minimal'' cost of defending the nation's southern flank. The drama of his appearance before Congress parallels the urgency of the current diplomatic mission of Secretary of State George P. Shultz, who has flown to the Middle East to try to rescue the Administration's peace initiative and long campaign to free Lebanon of foreign forces. For, as several officials acknowledged, the President and Secretary Shultz felt the need to put their personal prestige on the line in unusual ventures because the Administration found itself on the political and diplomatic defensive in both Central America and the Middle East.

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News Analysis

Date: 29 April 1983

By David K. Shipler

David Shipler

The departure of Ariel Sharon from the post of Defense Minister appears to have changed the way the inner circle of the Israeli Government makes policy. There has been more consultation among key ministers in the two months since Mr. Sharon resigned, and a calmer, more collegial atmosphere in most deliberations, according to well-placed officials. Mr. Sharon remains in the Cabinet, but mainly as a gadfly, with little of the influence that once made him the second most powerful man in Israel. At Cabinet meetings and public gatherings, he has adopted an increasingly critical line toward Government policies, arguing against the flexibility brought by his successor, Moshe Arens, in negotiations with Lebanon and relations with the United States.

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News Summary; THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1983

Date: 28 April 1983

International President Reagan exhorted Congress to back his program of military and economic assistance to El Salvador and other countries in Central America. In an unusual address to a joint session of Congress, Mr. Reagan asserted that the present turmoil in the region posed a threat comparable to what the United States faced in Europe after World War II when President Truman sought aid for Greece and Turkey. (Page A1, Column 6.) The Democrats' response to President Reagan's address was made by Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut. Terming the Administration's insistence on military aid to Central America ''a formula for failure,'' he urged in its stead economic aid to relieve ''the factors which breed revolution,'' and said the United States should work for negotiated settlements in the region. (A1:4-5.)

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News Summary; FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 1983

Date: 29 April 1983

International Richard B. Stone was appointed Ambassador at Large to Central America by President Reagan. The appointment of Mr. Stone, a conservative Democrat and former Senator from Florida, prompted some criticism because of his former role as a registered agent for the right-wing Government of Guatemala. (Page A1, Col. 4.) Nicaragua again requested talks with the United States over differences. In an interview, the Foreign Minister accused President Reagan of ''working on the fears of the American people'' with ''absurd and deceitful charges against Nicaragua.'' (A8:3-4.)

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AN INNOVATIVE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR: ANTHONY JOHN ALVARADO

Date: 29 April 1983

By Marcia Chambers

Marcia Chambers

A month ago Anthony J. Alvarado did not believe he had the slightest chance of becoming the head of the largest public school system in the country. Yesterday the Board of Education selected him as Schools Chancellor, and celebrations erupted in Mr. Alvarado's East Harlem office, where he has served as school superintendent of District 4 for the last decade. Mr. Alvarado, who will be 41 years old in June, has won his share of accolades for the innovations he has brought to the schools of East Harlem, where most of his 14,000 students are black or Hispanic. He has created schools within schools, so-called mini-schools. These schools focus on a particular area, such as dance, music or art. Mr. Alvarado says his mini-schools have become so successful they attract children from outside District 4.

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REAGAN, IN NEW YORK, DEFENDS CURBS ON DISCLOSURES

Date: 28 April 1983

By Francis X. Clines

Francis Clines

President Reagan, contending that some news articles based on unauthorized disclosures of Government information had endangered American relations with a foreign country, yesterday defended his attempts to restrict the flow of some information to the news media. ''We're not trying to hide anything that shouldn't be hidden,'' Mr. Reagan said in remarks at the convention of the American Newspaper Publishers Association in Manhattan. He offered no specific examples of articles that had endangered American relations abroad. ''I really am pretty upset about leakers,'' Mr. Reagan said in defending his Administration's policy. The White House has suggested legislation that would impose jail sentences on Government employees and former employees who disclose secret information without permission, and would require Government workers to submit to polygraph tests to prove their innocence.

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CUING IN THE PRESS FOR A BIG SPEECH

Date: 29 April 1983

By Steven R. Weisman, Special To the New York Times

Steven Weisman

Two hours before President Reagan's speech on Central America Wednesday night, many White House reporters could be seen carrying a five-page summary of the President's remarks. The summary included sections on the ''highlights'' and ''goals'' as well as a breakdown of United States military assistance. Everything, in fact, that you might expect to find in an analytical article or commentary - except that in this case, the document was produced by the White House.

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PRINT AND TV JOURNALISTS GIVE EACH OTHER ADVICE

Date: 28 April 1983

By Jonathan Friendly

Jonathan Friendly

Three television journalists and three of their newspaper counterparts gave each other advice yesterday on how each would like to change what the other did. They agreed that celebrity journalism was bad and that acknowledging errors was good. In generally polite terms, they disagreed on how much each had to teach the other. The panel discussion was the final session of the 97th annual convention of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, which drew a record number of registrants, 2,888, to its three days of meetings at in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. At noon, the publishers, their spouses and their guests jammed the grand ballroom to applaud a short address by President Reagan.

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