A bill that would prohibit public schools from hiring contract lobbyists advanced to the Senate floor on Monday.

"My goal here is simply to keep money in the classrooms where we want it to go," said Senate Majority Leader Scott Jenkins, a Plain City Republican and sponsor of SB123, at a Senate committee meeting. "I'm sure if I was a lobbyist, right now, I would sense this is an anti-lobby bill, right? The answer is yes."

The bill does not prevent employees, patrons and board members of school districts and charter schools from lobbying the Legislature on behalf of their schools. It forbids the hiring of outside lobbyists with contracts.

The Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions committee passed the bill unanimously with a favorable recommendation.

— Rosemary Winters