AUGUSTA, Maine — Faced with cuts in school subsidies this year and the certainty that state aid will be $60 million less next year, school officials and lawmakers are considering the idea of school shutdown days.

“One of the things superintendents talked about is, as opposed to cutting a program in its entirety, is that maybe we should be looking at statewide shutdown days for education,” Education Commissioner Susan Gendron told members of the Legislature’s Education Committee on Thursday. “We ran the numbers and that would save $7 million statewide for a student day, somewhat less for a non-student day.”

She said on a day when students are not at school the savings are slightly less because there are no transportation costs. Much of the savings would come from not paying staff salaries or operating school buildings on those days.

She said the approach is still being researched to see if it is feasible, but has been used in other states.

Gendron said the estimate of savings is for both the state and local share of education costs, and a shutdown day would benefit both levels of government.

State government is using 20 shutdown days in the next two years as a means of balancing the budget. Several states are also using the approach.

“We are also going to bring all of the educational partners to the table to look at what are the implications, what are the impacts on kids, what are the impacts on families,” Gendron said. “[There’s] a lot of questions to answer.”

Rep. Patricia Sutherland, D-Chapman, co-chairwoman of the panel, said several school superintendents had raised the shutdown day concept at the statewide meeting with Gendron last month.

“I have a hard time talking about it because we spend so much time talking about why we should have kids having more school time,” she said. “But it is a way to make a substantial cut.”

Gendron said there is broad concern that there could be a repeat of last year when several support level positions were eliminated after state aid was reduced. She said some school officials have expressed concern that whole programs might be eliminated, and under the shutdown approach, savings can be achieved without pro-gram elimination or layoffs.

Sen. Justin Alfond, D-Portland, co-chairman of the panel, worried about public perception of a discussion about shutdown days for schools. He questioned Gendron as a former school superintendent about the potential impact of even discussing the possibility.

“Do we really think this is something, around this table, that could happen this year?” he asked.

Gendron said if she were a school superintendent today, she would see it as a better alternative to cutting teachers and eliminating programs.

“I would ask my community is it better for us to look at four days, or whatever it is, and preserve the arts and the gifted and talented,” she said. “As a superintendent I would argue yes it is.”

Sen. Elizabeth Schneider, D-Orono, a member of the panel, said she has “grave reservations” about the proposal. She also said that while the superintendents understand that there may be significant cuts in state education aid, she is not sure school board members understand the serious problem the state is experiencing with state revenues not meeting estimates.

“I think we are going to see revenues continuing as they are for a while,” she said. “I don’t think everyone has gotten the message. I have some real deep concerns about all of this.”

The committee was told there are also a lot of other proposals being discussed to save significant amounts of money over the current two year budget. Rep. Peter Johnson, R-Greenville, asked Gendron about a proposal discussed by the superintendents that would freeze salaries of all school employees.

“It has many implications and legal questions that we have not yet answered,” Gendron said of that proposal, which is also under review.

Sutherland described the daylong session of the committee as a “brainstorming session” to look at the serious funding issues the panel will face in the January session as well as the many education policy questions before them.