A new Ohio bill is stirring up controversy.

Senate Bill 107 would change how school board elections work by requiring candidates to declare a political party and run in partisan primaries.

Local State Senator Sandra O'Brien is a co-sponsor, and proponents of the bill argue it would bring transparency for voters since school boards oversee district budgets and educational policies.

Meanwhile, some other organizations, including the League of Women Voters of Ohio are sounding the alarm over the move. 

"Our schools need to keep politics out," Karen Leith, Advocacy Chair of the LWVO said, "Schools are nonpartisan, and they need to stay that way."

The organization called SB 107 "dangerous and unnecessary" and argues school decisions should be based on education, not party politics.

"It would be a terrible bill for school districts, and we're asking people to let their voice be heard, to say, 'shut it down right now,'" Leith added, "We will lose a lot of really good school board candidates, because they are just people who are passionate about their schools. they're not looking for a career in politics."

She said partisan school board elections could limit voter choice and silence independents who wouldn't get to vote in the primary elections.

"Once we open the door to partisan politics for school board races, we've opened the door to all sorts of money that comes in from the outside," she said, "and it takes the focus over the real issues of the community schools and puts the focus on politicized issues."

The sponsor of SB 107, State Senator Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware), told 21 News Wednesday evening he "disagrees completely" with the LWVO's stance. 

In response to Leith's statement regarding money that could come from the outside in a school board election, he said, "with all due respect to the LWVO, that happens all the time." 

"You have five board members, you'll always have a majority, the more information a person knows about a candidate, the better," Brenner said, "We went years and years under the guise that these are nonpartisan seats but board members are partisan one way or another."

The bill remains in committee.