April 20, 1992

For the first time in years, the Legislature will have time on its hands when it returns to Albany on Tuesday after a two-week recess. That may sound like a dangerous proposition to some, but it could make the next 10 weeks one of the most productive periods in the Legislature's recent history. Before leaving town on April 2, lawmakers passed a budget that was virtually on schedule; the first time that has happened since 1984. Last year, the budget was not settled until July 4, the last day of the session.

New York City's beleaguered public schools are now being held up as the best in the country for something -- creating a network of magnet schools that do not end up segregating students by race or class. A report released today by researchers at Columbia University's Teachers College praises New York City as a national model for its career magnet schools, which draw students from across the city and prepare them for both specific careers and college. 'Most Exciting Set of Choices'

It's nice work if you can get it. The $86 million paycheck that Coca-Cola's chairman, Roberto C. Goizueta, received last year is apparently the highest ever awarded for a year's labor. And with the market at a record high, dozens of other chief executives are expected to receive multimillion-dollar packages built around stock bonuses. Is America's corporate leadership overpaid? In a defense that will no doubt be echoed by many of his peers, Mr. Goizueta suggested that his $83 million stock bonus was small change compared with the $50 billion increase in the market value of Coke shares during his decade-long tenure.

In the last week East Orange, a community long troubled by urban ills, has found itself defined, at least temporarily, by the conclusion that six women were murdered and their bodies discarded here beneath train trestles, along highway embankments or in abandoned buildings. But if America's experience with mass murder is any guide, the geography of these killings was purely coincidental, not an indictment of a place or its people. "It could have happened anywhere" was a familiar refrain here last week.

With rebel forces poised to take control of the capital of Afghanistan, the leaders of 10 Afghan guerrilla factions failed in a meeting here today to set aside their differences in an effort to avert a chaotic struggle for power. But as they gathered here, the guerrilla field commander whose fighters have surrounded Kabul and forced President Najibullah to flee made what appeared to be an important gesture of unity with the other rebel factions. Mr. Najibullah's whereabouts remain uncertain.