The furor over the Department of Education’s decision to adopt furlough Fridays as a way to meet its budget shortfall has revived a longstanding debate over educational governance in Hawaii.

That might turn out to be the best thing about this whole mess.

Gov. Linda Lingle said, in retrospect, that she should not have gone along with the idea of furloughs on instruction days. This illustrates, she says, the lack of accountability in the state’s education system.

And she is right. There are simply too many masters and too much circular finger pointing. Lingle’s suggestion is a constitutional amendment that would make the superintendent of education a cabinet member directly responsible to the governor.

That would clarify the “who’s the boss?” question.

Another option would be to give the Board of Education taxing powers, which would settle accountability directly within the DOE and largely cut the Legislature out of the game.

Whatever way it goes, it is time to change a system in which everyone is in charge, which means no one is in charge.