February 19, 1985

When the Pentagon halted payments to the Hughes Aircraft Company on several of its faltering missile and radar programs last summer, Hughes suffered more than a jolt to its reputation as a top-notch military supplier. The financial impact was jarring, too. It meant that Hughes Aircraft's sales for 1984 were flat. Instead of achieving the 20 percent sales gain that many analysts were expecting, the huge aerospace company failed to improve on 1983's $4.9 billion, according to figures obtained from the company last Friday. Moreover, its earnings were pared ''a lot,'' Donald H. White, president of Hughes, said in an interview, although he declined to be specific. Costs piled up during the six months it took to put missile and radar production back on track.

EFFORTS by states to equalize the financial resources of school districts, a major goal of education reformers in the 1970's, have not significantly reduced the gap between the richest and poorest districts, according to school finance experts. In some states, the experts say, the disparities of wealth and spending have increased. Efforts to equalize spending have fallen short, they say, partly because poorer districts have not been able to muster the political power necessary to channel the bulk of increased state aid their way and partly because an emphasis on equalizing finances has shifted to an emphasis on improving educational standards. Some experts also said they feared that future attempts to improve financial equity could be undercut by efforts to achieve educational excellence that did not give poor districts the extra resources they would need. Losing Ground Since 1970's ''I don't see the reforms of the 1970's holding up,'' said G. Alan Hickrod, president of the American Education Finance Association, which is made up of school financial officers, academics and educational consultants. ''We've lost almost all the ground we had gained.''

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1985 International Argentina's Economics Minister and central bank head quit unexpectedly. The two men, Bernardo Grinspun and Enrique Garcia Vazquez were chiefly responsible for fashioning Argentina's debt pact with the I.M.F. No reason for the resignations was given, but analysts in the United States noted that the economics programs were not being carried out effectively. (Page A1.)

For the last year and a half, New York City has offered 50,000 landlords bonuses of several thousand dollars for every additional apartment they rent to a homeless family. The city, through the offer, had hoped to reduce the money it spends to house homeless families in hotels. But so far the monetary bait has netted only about 200 apartments. The landlords, citing soaring operating costs, have told the city they no longer want to accept families they cannot count on to pay their rent. As the acknowledged failure of the bonus plan suggests, the city's housing stock no longer seems to make room for many of its poorest people. And behind the crisis of homeless families there is a deeper and more tangled crisis in housing.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1985 International South African demonstrators fought the police in running battles in a packed squatter camp outside Cape Town. At least five people were reported killed and 60 injured. Officials said the protest was generated by a fear among the 100,000 residents that they were to be forcibly removed to a newly created black township several miles away. (Page A1, Column 1.) Shiite Moslem fundamentalists drove into Sidon, Lebanon, to celebrate the departure of Israeli forces from the port city. The thousands of armed demonstrators called for an Islamic republic in Lebanon. (A1:2.)