Poll shows president's position weakening as leader

Most Americans feel that President Reagan is increasingly less pertinent to the governing of the country, a recent Wall Street Journal/NEC News poll indicates.

Mr. Reagan's recent efforts to revitalize his presidency haven't convinced people that he can regain his position as a strong national leader, the nationwide survey suggests. On the contrary, many seem to regard him as being too uninvolved in decision-making and unlikely to change.

When asked who they thought will exert the most influence on the policies and decisions made in the White House during the next two years, 2,153 adults in the poll chose Reagan third, behind new House Chief of Staff Howard Baker and members of the cabinet. Just 27% felt Mr. Reagan would have the most influence over his own White House.

Furthermore, most people don’t believe that Mr. Reagan is capable of changing his management style to face the criticisms of the Tower Commission's report on the Iran-Contra affair. The president is "too set in his ways,” say 56%, while 40% say he will alter his management style.

Despite Reagan's steps to take command - efforts that have involved replacement of former Chief of Staff Donald Regan with Baker, a nation televised speech and the appointment of FBI Director William Webster to be director of central intelligence – 54% of those polled say Mr. Reagan doesn’t pay enough attention to major policy issues involving his administration. That figure is up from 46% in January.

The poll's more promising news revealed: 52% of those polled say they look to Mr. Reagan for "leadership the direction the country is going;” 65% now believe that he is healthy and vigorous enough to be an effective president during the next two years, up from 60% in a Journal/NBC poll January.

More than three-quarters of those polled, however, think the president isn't as strong a leader now as he was during his first term. A majority, 54% now say his performance as president is "only fair" or "poor," compared with just 50% in the January poll.

As in the January poll, Americans still feel by a 2-to-1 margin that Mr. Reagan isn't as fully in control of his administration as he should to be.

Some other findings of the poll show:

  • The public now is even less convinced that he is doing all he can to solve the problems created by the sale of arms to Iran: 46% say yes, 49% no. In January, 50% said yes and 42% said no.
  • Fifty-two percent, however, don’t think he should resign even if it turns out that he knew about the diversion of funds to the Contras, while 41% say he should.
  • Mr. Reagan's policy of aiding the Nicaraguan Contras remains very unpopular: 58% disapprove and 29% approve.
  • Fifty-three percent favor a budget compromise with Congress to reduce the Federal budget deficit even if it results in a tax increase, while 40% don't favor such a compromise.

Housing costs, vacancies up

The number of available housing units are up more than ever before but housing costs still rose faster than overall consumer prices in the early 1980s, the Census Bureau announced.

The number of housing units in the country was expected to reach 100 million by the end of March, 1987, the Bureau said. In a separate study, the Bureau reported that housing costs have climbed faster in the 1980s, adding to a drop in the rate of home ownership over the past six years.

The consumer price index rose 17% during 1980-83, the Bureau said, while monthly housing costs rose 26 % for homeowners with mortgages and 27% for homeowners without mort-gages.

The cost of rent and utilities rose a whopping 31% in the early 1980s. The median value of owner-occupied housing units during 1980-83 increased 16% and the sales price of new homes increased 17%.

The decline in the home-ownership rate during the 1980s has been the first drop since the Census Bureau started monitoring such figures in 1940. From the 1980 peak of 65.8%, the percentage of units owned or partially owned by at least one occupant fell to a low of 63.5% in the last quarter of 1985. In the last quarter of 1986 the home ownership rate was 63.9%, but Census officials said the increase may not be statistically significant.

The 1981-82 recession and high interest rates, as well as increased home prices are cited as reasons for the decline in home ownership, said Arthur F. Young, director of the Bureau's housing division.

The Bureau said the South has led the nation in housing starts since the agency began tracking such information. Housing units tracked by the survey include apartments, mobile homes, vacation homes and single family homes.

Business executives express interest in teaching

Many business executives and military personnel with scientific back-grounds express interest in pursuing a second career as math or science teachers in public schools, according to a recent survey.

The National Executive Service Corps, a volunteer organization, said 32% of 3,400 business professionals surveyed in seven major companies said they were interested in seeking a post-retirement career in teaching. Of the 929 military personnel surveyed, 41% were interested in teaching.

The survey sponsor, The Carnegie Corp. of New York City, said it is giving the National Executive Service Corps $392,000 to implement a pilot teacher recruitment project at two military bases and two industry sites. The sites have not yet been determined.

Despite scandal, students still seek finance career

Eighty-seven percent of students at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business say they believe insider-trading is common in investment banking, yet more than half still want to pursue a career in that field.

These sentiments were despite the recent developments in the Ivan Boesky insider-trading case. The affair, students believe, was an excep-tion, not the norm.

In the Fuqua survey, most students condemned Boesky as a crook who got carried away by greed and deserved to be punished for his wrongdoing. Sixty-seven percent felt that the $100 million penalty that Boesky paid to the SEC was too small.

Despite this, 44% of the Fuqua students said they would buy stock on a tip that a company was going to be acquired. Furthermore, 89% of the students thought it was unethical to omit vital information from a government environmental report but split 50-50 over whether price-fixing between competitors was wrong.

In regard to courses on ethical be-havior in the business world, 61% of students said they doubted that business schools could teach ethical behavior.

55% want smoking ban, poll reveals

By a 55%-43% margin, Americans support a ban on smoking in all public places, a Gallup poll indicates.

Furthermore, they show a growing support for outlawing all forms of cigarette advertising, a criterion awaiting congressional action.

In 1977, in Gallup's first assessment of the cigarette advertising issue, opposition to a total ban outweighed support by 54% to 36%. By 1981, opposition had fallen to a mere 51% majority while the number of backers rose to 43%. Today, statistically equivalent numbers favor (49%) and oppose (47%) a total ban.

Many employers have begun drastic restrictions on smoking in the workplace because of the potential heavy risks nonsmokers face by breathing cigarette smoke. Almost all federal installations as well as many places of public accommodation now are covered by these restrictions, according to a recent poll.

Of course, the views of smokers and nonsmokers differ greatly on the issue of banning smoking in public places. Nonsmokers favor such a ban by 69 % to 30% while smokers oppose it by a 72% to 25% vote.

In regard to banning all cigarette advertising, the divergence is less significant. Smokers oppose a total ban by more than a 2-1 ration, 68% to 30%. Nonsmokers favor the measure by a narrower 57% to 38% margin.

The results are based on telephone interviews with 1,015 people 18 and older, including 299 cigarette smokers and 716 nonsmokers. The interviews were conducted March 14-18 in scientifically selected localities nationwide. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects could be four percentage points in either direction, Gallup claims. For results based on the subsamples of smokers and non-smokers, the margin of sampling error could be eight points and five points, respectively. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into poll findings.

U.S. aid to public schools

For the fifth straight year, Federal aid to public schools in fiscal 1985 declined and fell to 6.1% of total school revenue, the Census Bureau reported.

Federal aid to public schools reached $8.9 billion in fiscal 1985, which ended September 30, 1985. This is in comparison to $9.1 billion, or about 9% of the total, in fiscal 1980. Out of the $8.9 billion in fiscal 1985, $1.4 billion went to local school systems; another $7.5 billion was dis-persed through state and local governments for vocational education, school lunch and other programs.

Public school revenue totalled $146 billion in fiscal 1985, a 9% increase from the year before, the Census Burreau reported.

The main reason for the rise was an 11% increase in direct state aid. State aid accounted for 46% of general pub-lic school revenue in fiscal 1985. Local taxes and governments accounted for 48% of total revenue for schools, with property taxes being the single largest source of local revenue.

Privilege poll

When asked who will have more privileges when they grow up, a survey of youths by the American Chicle Youth Poll reveals:

  • Men, 55%
  • Women, 19%
  • Same, 19%
  • Don't know, 19%.

Vacation breaks

In the summer of 1986, these areas of the U.S. were the most popular destinations of vacation travellers, according to the U.S. Travel Data Center for BETTER HOMES & GARDENS:

  • South Pacific, 25%
  • Pacific, 14%
  • East north central, 13 %
  • West north central, 12%
  • East south central, 10%
  • Mid-Atlantic, 10%
  • West south central, 8%
  • Mountain, 6%
  • New England, 3%.