Searching for ways to pare expenses, state education officials have come up with an array of proposals, including closing public schools for six days and requiring teachers and other employees to work without pay for four days out of the school year.

None has been received warmly by the Board of Education, teachers and their union, parents or state legislators. Nor has the latest suggestion - to hire fewer teachers and increase the number of students in each classroom.

But with tax revenues tumbling, all should be prepared to accept belt-tightening measures that have the least effect on student learning. Teachers and staff should keep open minds about their work levels since layoffs could result if economic conditions worsen.

Gov. Linda Lingle, in anticipation of revenue shortfalls, has directed state agencies to prepare to reduce their spending by a much as 20 percent. The school board has already approved a plan to decrease costs by $46 million - or 15 percent of the department's $2.4 billion budget - discontinuing funding for 244 positions, science textbooks and other materials, custodians, charter school coordinators, programs for literacy training for learning-disabled children and teacher workshops.

Though the board warned that further reductions would cut deeper into classrooms, Lingle's budget director last month asked the department for a plan to shrink spending by the full 20 percent, or about $70 million.

Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto suggested closing schools for six days for a $25 million savings, requiring employees to work without pay for four days to trim $19 million, closing campuses on four teacher-planning days when students are off to save about $16 million and to shorten the school year by four days to save $18.3 million.

Roger Takabayashi, president of the 13,000-member Hawaii State Teachers Association, said having teachers “;donate”; four days of work was essentially a pay cut. Hamamoto responded that her suggestions would give union workers some sense of job security, bringing up the possibility of layoffs.

Meanwhile, the Lingle administration has reversed its earlier insistence on the 20 percent reduction. Regardless, the department put on the table its proposal to bump up the average classroom size by one student to 27.15 and decrease teacher hires by 159 from the usual 1,200 each year, cutting another $9.7 million in costs.

Whether this back and forth reflects public relations gamesmanship, the uncertainty of revenue collections or both isn't clear. But increasing the number of students in a class would not be ideal.

Changing working conditions might not sit well with teachers and staff, but employees need to acknowledge that sacrifices are necessary when money is tight.