The state Department of Education’s management of its school bus system has reached a critical juncture. The system has been hit with a breathtaking escalation in costs, a budget smackdown in the Legislature and the slashing of service to about 2,000 students. The state auditor, in a report issued Friday, placed the blame squarely at the DOE’s feet, accusing the department of gross mismanagement: "The way in which the department operates its transportation network is fundamentally flawed."

It’s obvious the time has arrived to fix the broken school bus system. What’s not so obvious is how this will be done.

The student transportation services system is a complex and expensive beast, serving some 48,000 general and special education students with more than 800 routes statewide. The cost of providing these services last year was $77 million, an astonishing increase from $29 million in the 2005-06 school year.

Some of the blame was placed on a dearth of competitive bids, leading to suspicions that bus companies were colluding to keep costs high by avoiding bidding against each other on certain routes. But the audit found fault with the DOE, saying its lack of disciplined oversight of its bus routes and ridership, as well as "perfunctory" reviews of single-bid contracts, could also be blamed for the cost increases.

The audit made numerous recommendations for fixing the problems, including keeping up-to-date information on ridership numbers, routes and mileage statistics — seemingly basic requirements for managing a large transportation network. The audit also urged the DOE to train its staff to flag suspected anticompetitive practices and respond accordingly.

In a two-page response attached to the auditor’s report, DOE Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi acknowledged that most of the audit’s recommendations were "reasonable and prudent."

Nonetheless, she found fault with some of the audit’s findings and made no specific promises to follow its recommendations. Rather, she said, a consultant hired by the DOE would "review the corrective measures that the auditor’s report outlines."

In the meantime, the DOE would "work with the consultant" to implement its own measures to better monitor the fleet and encourage more competition for bus contracts, including redesigning its contract model to allow non-school-bus entities to enter the market.

That won’t be good enough. The state Board of Education, at a meeting Tuesday, prudently directed the DOE to respond to each of the audit’s specific recommendations, which number more than a dozen. The Legislature, too, should take note of how the DOE responds. In the past session, the Legislature, mindful that real reform was needed but not offered, declined to come up with an additional $17 million the DOE wanted to maintain current levels of service. The result was sharp cuts in service and angry parents and students left high and dry.

DOE Assistant Superintendent Ray L’Heureux told the BOE that the DOE hopes to develop with a long-term strategy to get student transportation costs under control. No doubt he means it. But we’ve heard such talk before.

The safe transportation of our students is a critical service that can’t be whipsawed by the crises it has endured. It will take a fully committed BOE and the Legislature to ensure that the necessary changes are implemented with all due speed, and not allowed to sink into a swamp of bureaucratic complexity or inertia.