As the DOE looks for ways to cover the $7.7 million cut the state Legislature left on its doorstep this session, the department will need flexibility and authority to efficiently manage its business.

The legislative cut to the budget that covers support services for students — including transportation, lunches and maintenance, after-school programs and adult education— means sensible adjustments will have to be made, and promptly.

One place to start should be reducing the bureaucracy and politics that too often tend to muddle the decision-making process regarding school operations.

One plan that makes sense is a proposal now up for Board of Education approval that would give the DOE the administrative ability to raise bus fares without the costly and time-consuming rule-making procedure of going to the board.

The DOE is in a better position to guide this course; and, by the same token, it should be held accountable for those choices.

For its part, the DOE seems to understand that point. "Having the authority to raise bus fares means that we need to be responsible, and be sure that what the amount we are raising it by is appropriate, and that our communities can handle it," says DOE Superintendent Pat Hamamoto.

The bus fares don't come close to covering the actual costs of the services. Currently, students pay $119.60 a year; it costs the state roughly $600 per rider to run the DOE bus system. And with rising fuel and labor costs, that disparity is not going to shrink anytime soon.

Of course public input should be sought. But the ability to react quickly is key to absorbing any budget shock.

Our education system already is well known for its layers of bureaucracy — and for the inefficiency and foot-dragging that comes along with it.

Giving the DOE more authority to make basic decisions, without jumping through endless hoops, would be welcome change.