Percentage Points

NEW YORK -- "For years," said Charles ("Engine Charlie") Wilson to a Senate Committee in 1952, "I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors, and vice versa."The comment became an instant cliche, with at least enough feeling of truth that it has endured long after Mr. Wilson, a former defense secretary and GM president, has been forgotten.Whether it is still true today once again has become an issue as General Motors and the other two major domestically based automobile manufacturers shudder through troubled times.

WASHINGTON -- One-third of Americans surveyed want to deprive illegal immigrants of social services, including public schooling and emergency room health care, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll finds. Even among Democrats, traditionally a party more welcoming of immigrants, 22 percent of voters surveyed would deny illegal immigrants access to services even as basic as emergency health care and public education. Still, in a sign of the ambivalence among voters about the emotionally charged issue, a strong bipartisan majority - 60 percent - favors allowing illegal immigrants who have not committed crimes to become citizens if they pay fines, learn English and meet other requirements.

WANT TO save money? "Some banks offer `special senior accounts' for people as young as 50," says Bottom Line. "These have benefits of regular (over 65) senior accounts but don't charge monthly fees or require minimum balances. Some offer free checks and ATMs. If your bank doesn't offer these, shop around."With low-fee brokerages, who needs a full-service broker? Financial planner William Brennan says, "Full-service brokers still have value for investors who are uncomfortable making their own decisions but who don't want to pay fees to an investment manager."

HERE ARE financial figures we hope you will find helpful:A PENNY SAVED: "If you are one of the 77 million baby boomers, you aren't saving enough. According to the American Association of Retired Persons, even the top 10 percent of income earners in the United States have saved and invested only $66,000 -- not exactly a fat retirement cushion." (Worth, April.)LOOKING AHEAD: Local investment adviser Morry Zolet sends these numbers: If you retire today with a $40,000 annual income, you will need $87,912 per year, 25 years from now, at a 3.2 percent annual inflation rate, to maintain your present living standard.

CONGRESS and the White House are having second thoughts about changing the way the government figures cost-of-living increases. Many programs are indexed to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), but most experts think that the CPI overstates the real rise in the cost of living.By revising the way it indexes payments, the government could produce a quick budget fix. It would nip a few dollars out of almost everyone's pocket but ease the pressure on Medicare and other popular programs.A couple of months ago, you heard a lot of brave talk about forming a bipartisan commission to figure out how to proceed.

With mortgage rates sinking to some of their lowest numbers in the last two years, Freddie Mac reported that for the third quarter of 1997, homebuyers abandoned adjustable-rate mortgages and moved into fixed-rate products.Among borrowers refinancing 30-year fixed-rate terms, 66 percent chose to go into a lower-interest 30-year term, up from 61 percent in the second quarter of 1997. Of those who were in 15-year mortgages, 30 percent chose to go into a 30-year term, 9 percentage points lower than second-quarter figures.

PHILADELPHIA -- Just when it seemed he was about to head quietly into the electoral sunset -- after four years of on-again, off-again presidential efforts -- Ross Perot has sparked a last-minute bump that may be enough to give the Texas billionaire yet another political life.It is not quite a Perot surge. Not even a boomlet. And it is not likely to get the Reform Party candidate anywhere near a victory next week. He does not lead in any state and thus, at the moment, has no prospects for a single electoral vote.

ST. LOUIS -- For the first time in three tries, Bob Dole yesterday entered the final stretch of a presidential quest, refusing to let the formidable odds against him dampen his high spirits."

BOB DOLE in particular and Republicans in general came away from San Diego energized by his "bounce" in the polls. But they should not let themselves be fooled. The convention bounce is routine and non-predictive.The most consistent polling data on this phenomenon is the Gallup Organization's. It has been comparing pre- and post-convention public opinion since 1960. On Aug. 7 this year it found President Clinton ahead of Mr. Dole by 22 percentage points, 52-30, with Ross Perot at 12. A three-day poll concluded on Aug. 18 showed the gap closed to seven percentage points, 48-41-7.

Howard County students again performed better than their peers in all other Maryland school systems on the state's annual achievement exams, but they slipped in eight of the test's 18 categories, county educators announced yesterday.Overall, the performance of Howard students improved slightly on last spring's Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) tests -- with 56.9 percent of the county's pupils scoring satisfactory or higher on the 1996 tests, compared with 56 percent in 1995.

Here are the latest of three polls on the presidential race: Obama: 49 percent; McCain: 43 percent ABC News-Washington Post poll, conducted Aug. 19-22 with 916 registered voters. Sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points Obama: 45 percent; McCain: 45 percent Gallup Poll Daily tracking survey, conducted Aug. 21-23 with 2,625 registered voters. Sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Obama: 46 percent; McCain: 43 percent Rasmussen Reports daily presidential tracking poll, conducted Aug. 21-23 with 3,000 likely voters.

Anne Arundel County posted gains in 11 out of the 12 categories of the Maryland School Assessment, according to results released by the state yesterday, and school officials are crediting a greater focus on data and teacher collaboration. Seventh-graders saw the biggest improvements on the annual tests given to children in grades three through eight, with the number of students scoring at "advanced" or "proficient" levels rising 9 percentage points over last year in reading and 7.4 points in math.

Amid growing economic uncertainty, more than half of Anne Arundel County residents said their salaries are not keeping up with the cost of living and that they are facing difficulty in paying rising gas and electric charges, according to a poll released yesterday. The economy surged to the top of respondents' concerns in the biannual survey conducted by Anne Arundel Community College, with nearly half -- 47 percent -- reporting that they are having difficulty affording $1.3 billion in state tax increases passed in November and fewer than ever indicating confidence in the county's economy.

The pollsters have some explaining to do. Widespread forecasts that Barack Obama would defeat Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation Democratic presidential primary proved faulty Tuesday night, with Clinton, a New York senator, winning by 3 percentage points. Polls released in the days before the vote showed the Illinois senator with leads ranging from 5 percentage points in a survey by Boston's Suffolk University to 13 points found by USA Today/Gallup. It was a "fiasco," in the words of Peyton M. Craighill, ABC News' deputy polling director.

WASHINGTON -- One-third of Americans surveyed want to deprive illegal immigrants of social services, including public schooling and emergency room health care, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll finds. Even among Democrats, traditionally a party more welcoming of immigrants, 22 percent of voters surveyed would deny illegal immigrants access to services even as basic as emergency health care and public education. Still, in a sign of the ambivalence among voters about the emotionally charged issue, a strong bipartisan majority - 60 percent - favors allowing illegal immigrants who have not committed crimes to become citizens if they pay fines, learn English and meet other requirements.

More Anne Arundel County high-schoolers passed state English, algebra and biology tests than last school year, though African-American and Hispanic students' performance continues to lag, according to data released yesterday by the Maryland State Department of Education. More than 7,500 county students took the annual High School Assessments, given at the end of courses in Algebra I, American government, biology and English II to help the state measure its progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Law. The state released only countywide pass rates; school-level data were unavailable yesterday afternoon.

Harford County elementary and middle school students turned in solid performances on this year's Maryland School Assessment, with most schools exceeding the state average in the annual tests, and one school's entire fourth grade passing the math and reading tests. Jarrettsville Elementary's principal attributed the fourth-graders' 100 percent passing rate to the academic environment and development fostered by the students, parents and teachers at the school. Overall, students in Harford elementary schools and middle schools made modest gains in math and reading.

Maybe it has been the years of emphasis Howard County schools have placed at the pre-school and kindergarten level. It could be increased interventions -- one school suggests that offering more field trips increases vocabulary. One thing is for sure: Fourth-graders in the county recorded the biggest increases on this year's Maryland School Assessments. Fourth-graders had the highest percentage of students in the county scoring at proficient or above on the assessments -- 93 percent in reading and 91 percent in math.

Though there are bright spots, most minority students in Anne Arundel County schools continue to lag behind their white peers on high-stakes state exams, despite new efforts to train teachers and administrators to focus on closing the achievement gap. Overall, the county posted modest gains on the annual Maryland School Assessments, exceeding state averages by 3 to 13 percentage points on the reading and math tests, according to scores released this...

Baltimore County's elementary school students overall scored slightly above state averages in this year's reading and math assessments and showed steady, if modest, gains countywide. But a significant gap remains between the county's lowest- and highest-performing schools, according to preliminary results of this year's statewide assessments released yesterday. For example, while all third-graders at Summit Park, Timonium and Chadwick elementary schools passed the reading exam, only about a third of the third-graders at Riverview, Mars Estates and Featherbed Lane elementaries passed.