Phil Quigley

President Clinton on Thursday announced an effort funded by California-based high-technology companies to connect every school in California to the emerging information superhighway by the end of this school year. Speaking before a group of schoolchildren and technology executives at the Exploratorium children's museum in San Francisco, the President said that the initiative would involve no federal money.

President Clinton on Thursday announced an effort funded by California-based high-technology companies to connect every school in California to the emerging information superhighway by the end of this school year. Speaking before a group of schoolchildren and technology executives at the Exploratorium children's museum in San Francisco, the President said that the initiative would involve no federal money.

Pacific Bell to Cut 600 Managers by End of Year: The new cuts come even though 4,300, or 24%, of the company's 18,000 managers have already retired under the program in the last year. Company President Phil Quigley said the reductions were part of a program announced last year. "To the extent possible, we will utilize voluntary means," Quigley said in a statement. "However, we will invoke the involuntary option of the plan if the other options don't meet our needs."

A team studying how to create jobs for Californians who will be cut off from welfare includes leaders of small companies such as Santa Ana's Financial Statement Services Inc. as well as giants such as Los Angeles' Atlantic Richfield Co. John Dietz, owner of Financial Statement, a data processing company with 100 Orange County employees, was named to the "Job Action Team" recently by Gov. Pete Wilson. Mike R. Bowlin, Arco's chief executive, co-chairs the team along with Pacific Telesis Co.

California students could debate each other from opposite ends of the state via live television under a $100-million campaign to move public schools and libraries onto the "communications superhighway." Pacific Bell announced Monday that it will wire nearly 7,400 public schools, libraries and community colleges in its service territory for computer communications and "video-conferencing" by 1996.

'This historic merger is about growth--growth in jobs, markets and services to our customers. It is not about downsizings or reduced employment opportunities.' EDWARD E. WHITACRE Jr. Chairman and chief executive, SBC Communications Inc. * 'We believe this merger will enhance our ability to deliver what customers want.' P.J.

Two familiar names from the converging entertainment-technology world have been named to head Gov. Pete Wilson's Information Technology Council--International Creative Management Chairman Jeffrey Berg and Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison. The council will work to ensure that California takes advantage of opportunities arising from the information revolution in areas ranging from education to the economy, Wilson said in a statement.

Los Angeles native Chuck Smith on Wednesday was named president and chief executive of SBC Pacific Bell, the state's largest local phone company. The move makes Smith the fourth executive to hold the top job at SBC Pacific Bell since the former Pacific Telesis Group was purchased five years ago by SBC Communications Inc. Smith replaces Ray Wilkens, who has been named SBC's senior executive vice president for sales and marketing.

Q. Why is Pacific Telesis breaking up? A. Because telecommunications technology is advancing at a rapid pace. The idea behind traditional regulated phone service was that it made economic sense to award a local monopoly to limit the great expense involved in setting up central switching stations and laying telephone wires. Regulation would ensure that good service was maintained at the lowest feasible price. But in recent years cellular phones, which have no wires, have been introduced.

The top two U.S. long-distance companies boosted profits for the first quarter of 1995 as both increased traffic on their long-distance telephone networks, the companies reported Wednesday. At Pacific Telesis, meanwhile, rate changes contributed to an earnings decline. The quarter ended March 31 marked renewed efforts by MCI Communications Corp., the No. 2 long-distance carrier, to halt the previous quarter's market-share decline, which came largely at the hands of AT&T Corp., the No. 1 carrier.