February 20, 1982

The Reagan Administration, spurred by a new Federal appeals court order, is considering asking the Supreme Court to decide whether racially discriminatory private schools are entitled to tax exemptions, White House officials said today. The Federal appeals court here, in a unanimous ruling issued late Thursday, temporarily barred the Administration from granting exemptions to such schools, which number in the hundreds. The White House officials confirmed that, among other options, the Administration was weighing the possibility of extricating itself from a politically damaging morass by asking the Supreme Court to consider another case on the same question. Significant Shift Could Result Such a move would be a significant step back from the Administration's original position that the Supreme Court should not decide the pending case and that previous Federal court decisions denying exemptions were improper exercises in judicial activism.

Alex Chatman, the first black to be elected a county administrator in South Carolina, has his own ways of knowing that hard times have returned to Williamsburg County. ''The population of the jail has tripled, even though there has been no increase in serious crime,'' he said. ''People get themselves arrested on some minor violation so they can get a meal or two, and I can prove that.'' Williamsburg County, a prime generator of poverty throughout most of the nation's history, had seen some better years in the past decade. Now, however, it abounds with stories of a return to the kind of hardships that caused a mass migration of poor people from its farms and towns to Northern cities for most of the century.

The United States Ambassador to El Salvador has asked the Reagan Administration to permit American military advisers there to carry rifles as well as pistols for personal protection, State and Defense Department officials said today. This recommendation, the officials said, was made by the Ambassador, Deane R. Hinton, in a message to Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. in the last few days. Officials said the Ambassador was concerned lest a United States soldier be killed or wounded because he lacked sufficient protection. Issue Is Under Study The question is being studied by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and by officials in the State Department, which has primary jurisdiction over United States activities in El Salvador, the officials said. They said they did not know when a decision would be made.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has let its oil production slide about 500,000 barrels a day, to a level between 7 million and 7.5 million barrels a day, oil analysts and traders said yesterday. Since November, the Saudis have cut production by 3 million to 3.5 million barrels daily. Output is now at the lowest level in three years. The cuts are seen as a direct response to the current worldwide oversupply of crude oil, variously estimated at between two million and three million barrels a day. Also in reaction to the oversupply, the Standard Oil Company (Ohio) yesterday cut the selling price of oil produced on the Alaskan North Slope by up to $2.27 a 42-gallon barrel, and Exxon confirmed that it had reduced the wholesale price of heating oil, kerosene and diesel fuel by 5 cents to 6 cents a gallon.

Even as they try to cope with inflation, Federal budget cuts and declining enrollments, many of the nation's best-known universities find themselves faced with deciding how to spend the millions of dollars that is becoming available for television rights to their major sports events. No one can predict with any confidence how much money will be raised now that cable and pay-for-view television have begun to compete with the networks to show football and basketball games. But those connected with sports, television and academia do not doubt that a huge windfall is on the horizon. 'A Grave Matter of Concern' The question of how that money should be used is pitting university administrators against their athletic directors, male coaches against their female counterparts and the big football and basketball schools against those that place less emphasis on sports. ''It's a grave matter of concern,'' said Stephen Horn, president of California State University at Long Beach. ''It's a type of endeavor where a lot of mischief can occur, and not only mischief but undue influence as well.''