Fight over school unions headed for a showdown

Portland Press Herald, March 31, 2008

(excerpt) Not all the drama in Augusta this year is swirling around the budget. There is still at least one more battle to be fought on school district consolidation,

While area school districts have been doing the hard work of finding partners and merging, as required by a law passed by the Legislature last year, opponents of the law have been working to gut the measure.

A bill that would exempt districts from consolidating into regional districts if they organized themselves into "super unions" has passed the House and Senate by large margins and is headed to Gov. Baldacci's desk.

He has promised to veto the measure, setting up a showdown between the executive and legislative branches of government. Members of the House and Senate who voted to enact this important reform measure last year should back off and prevent a successful override of the expected veto.