Feuding Continues Over Maine Efforts to Merge Districts

A battle under way in the Maine legislature could undermine the hard-won victory last year—led by Democratic Gov. John E. Baldacci—to consolidate the state’s hundreds of school districts and local school boards.

Gov. Baldacci last week vetoed a bill that would have allowed the formation of regional school unions—entities that would share a superintendent and a central-office administration, but could otherwise maintain separate budgets, school boards, and curricula. Such unions had been eliminated by the consolidation law enacted last year.

But as of press time, the final outcome remained...