AUGUSTA – Gov. John Baldacci moved Friday to coordinate education planning at all levels in Maine, establishing a task force charged with examining options for enhanced efficiencies and spending reform as well as considering finance models for universal access.

Baldacci said the formation of a new task force was part of an effort to “raise incomes in Maine, to raise opportunities in Maine,” recognizing that education can be an economic engine.

Led by Education Commissioner Susan Gendron, the panel is to submit a final report by mid-January 2005.

The name of the panel hints at the anticipated breadth of its overview: The Task Force to Create a Seamless Pre-Kindergarten through Sixteenth Grade Educational System.

The establishment of the task force, whose full membership has yet to be appointed, follows upon a 2003 formation of a coordinating advisory committee involving Maine’s Community College System and the University of Maine System.

It also follows upon Baldacci’s expression of a goal earlier this year to more fully connect all levels of public education in the state.

“There is more we need to do,” he said Friday.

The governor’s announcement came one day after the public release of a reorganization proposal for the University of Maine System that could come up for final consideration by trustees this fall.

Gendron, who joined Baldacci in his State House office Friday as he outlined the aims of the task force for reporters, called the newly released university system plan the latest in a series of strategic studies undertaken by Maine’s institutions of higher education.

A top priority for the state, she said, would be to integrate planning being done from different perspectives.

As spelled out in an executive order, one task force duty will be to promote student movement from one sector of the state’s educational system to another. The panel will also be expected to promote college readiness.

Task force members will include the chancellor of the university system and the president of the community college system. Eighteen other members will be appointed by the governor, and those serving on the panel will not be paid.

In seeking to raise incomes to the national average by 2010, the state is looking to boost its high school-to-college rate from 55 percent to 70 percent.