ALBANY — A commission with the teeth to force school consolidations, redraw district lines and look at everything from transportation to special education services was proposed Wednesday in new legislation at the Capitol.

The Commission on Education in the 21st Century would be modeled on a former state health care panel, known as the Berger Commission, which forced through a number of changes, including hospital and nursing home closings and mergers in Western New York.

Like the Berger Commission’s recommendations, the school panel’s plan would become binding across the state unless the Legislature votes the entire package down.

The legislation was introduced earlier this year by Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, a Hudson Valley Democrat, and was picked up Wednesday in the Senate by Kevin Parker, a Brooklyn Democrat.

The Senate is due back as soon as next week, and Democrats in the chamber are desperately looking for ways to try to appear friendly to property taxpayers as they try to retain their narrow margin of control in the 62-member house. Senate Democrats pegged property taxes as their top priority, and so far have been unable to deliver on various plans to control local tax levies — a point Republicans are preparing to drive home in the fall elections.

The bill, according to a legislative memo accompanying it, would create the panel to “modernize our system, lower the cost to taxpayers and provide a better education for our children.”

Like the Berger Commission, the education effort would consist of regional groups that would recommend changes to a central panel composed of 18 members — 10 of whom would be appointed by the Board of Regents.

The Berger Commission was effective, in part, because it gave political cover to legislators on tough decisions like hospital closings.

The bill gives the panel until Dec. 1, 2011, to report its recommendations. They would automatically kick in if the governor transmits them with his approval to the Legislature, which could only kill the ideas in whole if both houses agree.

The commission would be charged with taking a broad look at how schools are run — from textbook purchasing, collective bargaining agreements and school board powers to whether neighboring school districts should be combined to save money. The bill notes that 200 of the state’s 700 districts have fewer than 1,000 students.