June 24, 1986

In an 11th-hour change to its sweeping tax-revision bill, the Senate agreed today to provide greater incentives for the construction of rental housing for low-income Americans. The change was one of a series of mostly minor amendments the Senate cleared away today in preparation for a final vote Tuesday on its landmark measure. Working into the evening, the Senate adopted an amendment that would prevent any first-year revenue windfall produced by the legislation from being used to help meet the targets for deficit reduction imposed by the new balanced-budget law. To pay for the increased tax benefits for low-income housing, the senators agreed to prohibit individuals who invest in a tax shelter after the bill becomes law from using paper losses generated by the shelter to offset their income from other sources. The bill originally would have given all investors a four-year phase-out period on the use of tax shelter losses.

Several parent and professional groups yesterday sharply criticized the recommendations for reorganization that have been proposed by the newly nominated head of the New York City Board of Education's division of high schools. In a report presented to the board last month, the nominee - Dr. Frank L. Smith Jr., a professor at Teachers College of Columbia University - called for sweeping changes in the policies and procedures governing admissions to the city's 111 public high schools. ''We don't like what this man is saying, we think he's off the wall,'' said Janet Mangan, president of the Parent Teacher Association at Midwood High School in Brooklyn. ''We don't want to see our school destroyed, and you can be sure he will hear from us.''

President Reagan asked today to address the House of Representatives on Tuesday to make a final appeal for $100 million in aid for the Nicaraguan rebels, and the Speaker of the House turned him down. As partisan maneuvering over the aid request intensified, Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. said that Mr. Reagan was welcome to address a joint session of Congress, but that ''having the President appear before only one house to lobby for a legislative proposal would be unprecedented.'' A senior White House official said the President's advisers were ''flabbergasted'' by the refusal. Vote Scheduled for Wednesday The House is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the latest version of an Administration plan to channel $70 million in military assistance and $30 million in other aid to the forces, known as the contras, which are seeking to overthrow the Nicaraguan Government.

An article on the Style page last Friday about a book on Lena Horne's family by her daughter Gail Lumet Buckley incorrectly quoted a reference to the singer Marian Anderson. Recalling that Miss Horne's career lacked the family's approval, Mrs. Buckley said, ''The middle class considered show business declasse unless you were a concert performer like Marian Anderson.'' She used the word performer, not pianist.

Adam Opel A.G., the sturdy West German subsidiary of the General Motors Corporation, used to be called the money machine. But Opel, the linchpin of G.M.'s European activities, has been sputtering lately and G.M. officials are revamping the big European operation to nudge it back to profitability. Last year, the division, G.M.'s second largest after the domestic United States unit, lost $372.1 million, about $80 million more than in 1984. The widening loss came despite fast-selling models that helped G.M. dramatically widen its European market share last year to 11.4 percent, from 9.6 percent as recently as 1982. Seeming Contradiction The seeming contradiction in results arises because Europe's Big Six auto makers - Volkswagen, Fiat, Peugeot, Renault and the European units of Ford and G.M. - are all strugglng for shares of a relatively flat automobile market. That has translated into vicious price discounting and ballooning advertising budgets, both of which have depressed profit margins and left many of the majors losing money.