“We all have an obligation to make it work,” attorney Dick Spencer told the audience at a recent legal seminar on the new school consolidation law. He said local voters should be allowed to decide if they want to approve the new districts in referendum votes to be held next year.

We do not share Spencer’s view that we have an obligation to make a bad law work, and we would like nothing better than to see voters across the state repudiate the mistake made by a cowed Legislature.

We fervently believe that, had the school consolidation legislation stood on its own for an up or down vote, it never would have been enacted. But Governor John Baldacci and Education Commissioner Susan Gendron conspired with legislative leadership to package the legislation as part of the massive state budget bill. That way, rank-and-file legislators of both parties could be scared or coerced into approving the measure out of fear that a negative vote on the budget would force a government shutdown.

The underhanded tactic worked like a charm. The Appropriations Committee lacked the courage to tell the Governor that legislation of such sweeping magnitude should rise or fall on its own merits. With few exceptions, legislators fell in line, taking false comfort in the fact that the bill underwent some tuning to satisfy some — but far from all — of the concerns voiced by outraged citizens around the state.

Because of the hasty and unreasonable deadlines included in the legislation, existing school districts have only until the end of this month to inform the Department of Education of their intent to negotiate with other districts to form new Regional School Units or justify their reasons for standing alone.

Come the first of the year, communities really will be flying blind because school budgets must go out for a district-wide referendum even though most Regional School Units will not yet exist.

And what about the promise by state officials that all of this will save money?

Well, not so fast, said attorney Bruce Smith at the recent legal seminar. “You can’t take as an article of faith that there will be cost savings,” said Smith. Mitigating factors will include disparities in teacher pay scales in merging districts, the blending of high valuation communities regarded as “wealthy” with less affluent towns, and the application of the state’s Essential Programs and Services (EPS) formula, which theoretically determines how much each Regional School Unit should be spending per student.

As for greater local control, it doesn’t take a genius to envision what happens when a regional board of, say, 10 members, is elected to govern a district with 20 or more communities. For those towns without representation, other than perhaps a local advisory committee with no authority, any local control is effectively wiped out.

If Governor Baldacci wants a special session of the Legislature later this year, we’d suggest putting a repeal of this ridiculous school consolidation law on the agenda. Failing that, come local referendum time, towns and cities across the state should send a resounding message to Augusta.

Just say “no.”