More problems for Patrick in the new year.

Given the state's poor financial health, Governor Deval Patrick's ambitious education overhaul proposal will have to be scaled back for now to instead find ways to maintain the current level of quality in the state's schools, according to a report released yesterday by a special gubernatorial commission.

The Readiness Finance Commission said the economic downturn, which has already prompted $1.4 billion in state cuts, prevented it from pursuing an initial goal of finding new revenue sources to pay for Patrick's Readiness Project, which aims to provide a free public education from preschool through the initial years of college.

Instead, the committee urged the adoption of several cost-saving measures, which would help school districts to stave off budget cuts that threaten programs. The report said those recommendations could yield at least $550 million in savings.

Paul Reville, the state's education secretary, stressed in a telephone interview yesterday afternoon that the governor's plan is not dead.

"There is no question that the Readiness Project is a victim of the economic circumstances, just as any new initiative is at this time," he said. "But we will adjust the plan accordingly and keep the vision alive and act on various measures when the time is right."

Yet even pursuing the cost-saving measures could prove difficult, Reville said. Several recommendations, he said, have generated controversy when floated earlier by the governor. Among them: requiring teachers to join a statewide insurance plan, switching retired teachers to Medicare, and encouraging school districts with fewer than 1,500 students to consolidate.

Other less controversial recommendations included having districts regionalize some administrative operations, such as school lunch programs, busing, and building maintenance, as well as imploring more school districts to file often cumbersome paperwork to receive Medicaid reimbursement for some special-education costs.

UPDATE: From the Globe.

SECOND UPDATE: From the Globe.

THIRD UPDATE: From the Globe.