(The Center Square) — An Ohio budget that ends the three-year-old Fair School Funding Plan and ties school money to enrollment numbers was in front of a Senate Education Committee for the fifth time Monday.

Public school districts and the Ohio Education Association opposed the measure, which easily passed the House on a Republican-led party-line vote last month.

The proposed budget cuts the expected allocation to public schools through the plan by $400 million over the next two years, while expanding school choice for special needs and homeschool students.

It also ties a district’s funding to expanding or declining enrollment.

Greg Lawson, a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, called the phase out of guaranteed money for public schools a step in the right direction.

“Maintaining the broken status quo would continue funding empty desks and classrooms rather than sending state resources to the schools that students actually attend,” Lawson testified.

While the proposed budget cuts expected funding by $666 million, it does increase prior year money by $226 million. At the same time, it calls for an increase in charter school capital money and allows online charter schools that serve low-income students to receive Disadvantage Pupil Impact Aid.

The budget would also cap the amount of money schools could carry over from one year to the next, with proponents saying schools saving too much money should return it to taxpayers.

Westerville City Schools Board of Education Vice President Anisa Liban told the committee that punishes systems the carefully save money and would force $110 million in cuts at the suburban Columbus district.

“That’s not a number we can absorb without major consequences,” Liban told the committee. “It would force us to make deep, painful cuts to staff, academic programs, and essential services. And the frustrating part is – it wouldn’t be because we’ve mismanaged money. It’s because we’ve planned responsibly. This bill punishes districts like Westerville, who have made careful financial decisions and built a reserve not out of luxury, but out of necessity. That reserve is what allows us to operate sustainably and protect students when funding falls short.”

Passed in 2021 for the 2022-24 budget years, the Fair School Funding Plan changed the base cost formula to include a district’s income and took into account everything involved in education, including professional development and extracurricular activities.

A key change to local funding, according to that bill’s sponsors, was the plan would base 60% of a district’s local funding capacity on property values and 40% on resident income.