-- The law is designed to cut the number of school districts from 290 to about 80.
-- Each district must have at least 2,500 students.
-- Exemptions to the above cover island and tribal schools, districts with low administrative costs and high-performing schools, and districts where merging would be impractical for geographical or other reasons.
-- Non-exempt districts with fewer than 2,500 students must submit consolidation plans to the state.
-- Merger plans approved by the state then are subject to approval by local voters.
-- Teachers and other employees will be transferred to newly consolidated districts under their existing contracts.
-- Merged districts will be governed by regional school boards.
-- Proposed school budgets must be approved by referendum.
-- All districts, exempt or not, must submit plans to the state showing how they will cut administration, transportation, special education and facilities/maintenance costs.
-- Non-exempt districts that fail to merge face state-aid reductions and will have a harder time qualifying for state school-construction money.
But the law's supporters predict a difficult fight for opponents, partly because top lawmakers are unlikely to allow the Legislature to consider bills next year that would significantly change the law.
Efforts to repeal or weaken the law reflect grumbling among educators and others about its fairness and practicality. But backers say it is far too early to gut or weaken the law, because mergers have yet to occur.
Passed by the Legislature this year as an alternative to Gov. John Baldacci's initial call for 26 school districts, the consolidation law is designed to reduce the number of districts from 290 to no more than 80 by requiring a minimum of 2,500 students per district, with some exceptions.
Supporters say that will promote efficiency and cut costs. It would not automatically close any schools.
Opponents say the state should use incentives rather than mandates, or at least give districts more time to comply without punishing those that fail to do so.
Most districts have filed the required "notices of intent" that identify prospective "partners" for those that will have to merge to meet the enrollment threshold. Now the affected school districts are trying, sometimes grudgingly, to craft detailed merger plans by a December deadline.
Lawrence "Skip" Greenlaw Jr. of Stonington, who serves on the regional school board there, is behind the most sweeping opposition plan, which calls for repeal. His Maine Coalition to Save Schools wants to force a public vote on the issue unless the Legislature agrees to abandon consolidation.
"I've got people from more than 100 towns willing to take these petitions door to door," he said last week.
Greenlaw said "forced consolidation" of school districts would raise costs in some communities and may close some schools. That, he said, would require students to endure overly long bus rides and effectively kill some small communities by robbing them of their schools.
Organizers of the repeal effort would have to collect 55,087 voters' signatures to force the Legislature to either repeal the law or send it to voters. Unless they collect those signatures by January 2008, the proposal will not go to the Legislature -- and potentially to voters -- until 2009.
Greenlaw said he is optimistic he and his allies can collect more than 55,087 signatures -- his target is 100,000 -- by January, which would force votes next year.
But House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, who supports the law, said referendum organizers would have to do "a miraculous job" to get that many signatures that quickly.
If it takes them longer, Cummings said, the referendum will not materialize until after some mergers are in place.
"You'd have examples of successes, or the beginnings of successes," by 2009, Cummings said. He said that would undermine repeal efforts, while building support for revisions if changes are needed to make consolidation work better.
On another front, at least two lawmakers hope to introduce bills in the Legislature next year to weaken the law.
Rep. Peter Edgecomb, R-Caribou, and Rep. Richard Cebra, R- Naples, have proposed bills to repeal the penalties for failing to merge. Now the law would reduce state aid to the affected districts and make it more difficult for them to get construction money from the state.
"It's too much too fast," Edgecomb said, adding that the state should reward cost-cutting instead of penalizing districts that don't get the job done. For some school districts, he said, "it may be better to opt out, take the penalty and be sure they do it right."
Cebra also wants to file a separate bill that would postpone the compliance deadlines for a year. As it stands now,...
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