It's a common complaint from the schoolyard crowd, especially the small fry: "You're not the boss of me!"

Department of Education officials could make a similar complaint about having more bosses than they would like — and more than an efficient schools administration should have. The elected Board of Education sets policy; the elected Legislature approves the budget; the elected governor releases the money.

These days it's the Legislature's reluctance to relinquish control that's making news. From the perspective of students who may see their services cut back or made more expensive, it's bad news.

The DOE faces a cut by lawmakers who intend to carve around $10 million from the part of the DOE's budget that covers student support. This includes bus services, lunches, school maintenance, the A+ after-school program and adult education.

It's an unfortunate target to select, considering that the department can't squeeze enough excess funds from that area to cover the cut and may have to raise bus fares.

For the immediate future, the Legislature, now moving into conference committees, ought to rethink taking such a large bite out of a budget section that has such an immediate effect on students and their families. One in four public school students uses the bus services, so many will feel the pinch in tough economic times.

But the situation also illuminates a much larger, long-term problem that needs resolution. Lawmakers need to get out of the business of micromanaging the department budget. The DOE now has a chief financial officer, a position that was added in the interest of providing more transparency, of answering that age-old question, "Where does all that education money go?"

Evidently, the Legislature doesn't feel confident enough that there is transparency — or that there is an answer to the question — to let go of the reins. A Senate concurrent resolution, SCR 118, seeks to convene a working group of private-sector experts to recommend ways of improving transparency.

That might sound rational, but the DOE must be losing hope that it will ever have the full authority so it can be held accountable. If hiring a CFO hasn't persuaded lawmakers to release control, a working group probably won't, either.

Too many cooks can definitely spoil this broth, and it's the kids who are being cheated out of an effective and efficient school system.