Daily News from New York, New York • 32

32 Schoolhouse politics at work 1HE SEARCH for a New York schools chancellor has developed that 7A Do you agree that tandem trailers should be banned from roads In heavily populated states? aura of squalor so familiar to followers of modern politics. The school board members, denied their first choice, Deputy Mayor Robert Wagner, sat like stuffed animals left on the shelf after the Christmas rush and wondered what to do. The state education commissioner, secure in the knowledge that Beth Fallon i Al Berman Owner tire company "No. The situation has been over-dramatized. Tandem trailers have been used in EuroDe for vears.

They had them in Germany in 1955. The U.S. is moving late as far as tandem trucks are concerned." head, or they could let us go into this public place." By late morning, the still-stolid cops and guards had done neither, although a separate group of about 20 demonstrators was inside, also being filmed for television and shouting "South Africa." Meanwhile, the children outside vere being led in chants including, "Ain't gonna let nobody unqualified teach our chil-I-dren." And, "All fired up, can't take no more." I would have kissed the teacher who made them yell, "Can't take any more," but those present were more interested in politics than in grammar. Those who practice politics huddled throughout the day and, as it waned, they picked East Harlem District Four Superintendent Anthony Alvarado. There are problems with Alvarado.

He overspent his budget several times in fiscal 1983 by $1.6 million over the established $20.7 million. His wife works in the district, which she has a waiver to do since she did so before he got the job and since he does not directly supervise her. But there have been questions about payments to the man who does supervise her, and allegations of mismanagement first uncovered by Keith Moore of The News last February. "Alvarado has a very loose and easy style regarding fiscal and administrative matters," worried one board functionary. "On the other hand, he is really a brilliant educator, and Minter had no support on the board." r1 IS MINTER'S lack of such support that started all the fireworks.

The deputy chancellor, whose paper qualifications are superb, is convinced he can do the job. Many of those who have worked with him for two years are convinced he cannot, including former Chancellor Frank Macchiarola, who brought Minter in to succeed him and then changed his mind. Hence the opportunity for black politicians to score off the mayor and the mayor's search for another black, followed by his option for Wagner. It is to his own uncontrolled talent for invective that Koch owes this particular and so very public defeat Koch called Gordon Ambach names in January; Ambach got even in April. He insisted this had nothing do do with it at his press conference.

When was it that Koch had called him "pig-headed?" a reporter wondered. "Jan. 29," Ambach shot back. Then he shot Koch back. It is too bad for Wagner, a decent and gifted man who has been tarnished in the gleeful conclave to Get Koch.

The mayor should remember that many of those who get mad are also in a position to get even. Ipl Andrew Byer Security guard "Yes. They are too long, very hazar- he has publicly humiliated 1 1 Mayor Koch who called him pig-headed smirked and ignored the inference that he is not only pig-headed, but fat-headed. His ruling would mean that no one not a teacher could ever be chancellor, when the whole theory of American government is civilian control of professional, including military, agencies. And all week, inside and outside the Board of Education building at 110 Livingston St.

in Brooklyn, a handful of demonstrators preened for television cameras and begged to be arrested. On Monday, it was attorney Alton Maddox (of the Citywide Coalition for Dr. Thomas Minter for Chancellor) who was eager for self-immolation: "If you want to beat our heads," he told the stolid and unmoved black security guards on the 11th floor, "ask that coward Board President Joseph Barkan and his racist board Television cameras whirred busily, their crews outnumbering the protesters. Finally there were four arrests, with trespass charges dropped the next day. It is all a ballet but not as pretty as "Swan Lake." Yesterday, the Rev.

Herbert Daughtry treated the crowd of 20 or so schoolchildren and supporters he brought with him to a speech covering neo-colonialism, the situation in Belfast and the high cost of college. got two daughters. I'm trying to get them through school; it's bankrupting me." One can readily believe him; they are both at Dartmouth.) He left these fascinating side paths to call the board "criminals," and he also evinced interest in maltreatment: "These big, strong, menacing brothers they put out here on us," said Daughtry, gesturing to the security guards and cops, the majority of them black, "these big, strong, trained, karate-choppers could beat us on the A tST'I aous and our roads I were not hiiilt with pi VJ turn in Mmmifcxl them in mind. It's frightening that these tandem trucks are so wide that they stretch the full width of the lane." Susan Morfesi Building managing agent "I certainly do. It would be crazy to let them come here.

Once they begin using our 'V -n Jim highways, the next thing you know they will be on our streets. Fully loaded, they are hard to stop in an emergency." Let 'em teach school Ron Grillo Trailer truck driver "I think they should be kept out west where there are lots of sparsely populated areas. Most drivers are PL Harrison Rainie not qualified to drive them in the kind of traffic we have here in New York." a u.jMWMUiU nim i AL Rodney Johnson Auto mechanic "No. Everyone else uses our roads, why not tandem trailers? I drove tractor trailers and tandems are no What props up our corrupt and corrupting legal system if not practices enshrined at Fair Harvard? From there, huge proportions of graduates march dutifully off to large law firms that represent corporations that can afford td pay hundreds of dollars an hour for their expert knowledge of how to use and abuse the legal process. Bok complained that law schools attract too high a percentage of the most able college graduates, diverting "exceptional talent into pursuits that often add little to the growth of the economy, the pursuit of culture or the enhancement of the human spirit." It is an extremely useful point to be made in a nation wondering why its competitive edge has been ceded to foreigners.

But it is a shame that it comes from someone whose life's work has been devoted to perpetuating the very thing he condemns. If it is a social and economic sin for the best and the brightest to go to Harvard Law School instead of, say, MIT a few blocks away, Bok ought to do us all a favor and shut his place down. His report and the reverent solemnity with which it was received would deserve more snide sallies here if it weren't for the coincidence of his musings and the findings of a presidential commission on educational excellence. The commission shocked no one by concluding that the nation's public education system is lousy. Simply put, the commission said there are no standards any more in the classroom, among teachers, and for promotions and graduation.

Nearly 40 of the nation's 17-year-olds cannot draw inferences from written material; 80 cannot write a persuasive essay; and 67 cannot solve a math problem requiring several steps. So, something is terribly wrong at the top of the education system and at the bottom. The lawyers, as Bok would have us believe, are fiddling while the nation burns. President Reagan's response to this crisis is marvelous. He wants to kill the Department of Education, return prayer to schools and dismantle public education through tuition tax credits and vouchers.

TTE WILL NOT deliver on any 1 I one of those promises, M. Jfl perhaps because in his heart of hearts he knows they do not at all address the problem. The answer is to get better quality teachers through much higher salaries and greater public adulation for their work possibly making the job attractive enough to entice the prodigies populating our law schools and to give school supervisors more authority. Lawyers "would know how to produce such a system. They are smart, skilled in getting their way and adept at the science of learning.

Shakespeare's prescription to kill all the lawyers would be a waste. They should be put in charge of schools. At least then they would be doing something useful. more dangerous than a 40-foot trailer, as long as the operators have been properly trained." WASHINGTON Fancy this, from Derek C. Bok, president of Harvard University, former dean of Harvard Law School and lawyer: "The blunt, inexcusable fact is that this nation, which prides itself on efficiency and justice, has developed a legal system that is the most expensive in the world, yet cannot manage to protect the rights of most of its citizens." The system fails, according to Bok in a recent report to the university's Board of Overseers, because there are too many lawyers, too many rules, too contentious a framework, too many calcified, dilatory procedures, too much expense and too much litigation.

Bok wins this year's Inspector Louis Renaut Prize. Renaut, it will be remembered, is the slick French prefect in "Casablanca" who, on the command of his German overseers, orders Rick's speakeasy closed because he is "shocked, shocked to find there is gambling going on here." At that moment, a croupier sidles up to him and hands him his winnings. Jack Deutsch Sales manager "I've followed the controversy closely. On major arteries like turnpikes, expressways and thruways, they should be allowed because trucks move. But local make the country streets and roads are different.

The News mil pay $10 for each question accepted for this column. Today's award goes to E. Hill, 123S York Ave..