Aimee Berger-Girvalo

It all started on Jan. 8 when -- with my family present -- I was sworn in at the state Capitol to represent the 111^th District. While it was my third time taking the oath, the weight of the trust you have placed in me has never lessened. I am as excited, humbled and honored to represent the residents of Ridgefield as I was on the day I first took this oath, four years ago.

The amount we appropriated for each year in the FY 24-25 budget, approximately $181 million, was insufficient to cover the total requests for reimbursement that the state ultimately received from districts. The requests for Excess Cost reimbursement in FY 24 totaled almost $261 million, leaving an $80 million deficit. Every district in the state received less than they expected because the overall need was much greater than was budgeted.

I have spoken at length with the House Chair of the Committee on Education, to try and understand why the shortfall was so great, and she assured me that in addition to working toward a systemic fix to bring special education costs down by incentivizing districts to create more specialized programs in district, which also typically delivers a higher-quality of instruction and accountability, they are also seeking to allocate additional funds to make up for the losses the districts are experiencing.

Some of the other areas of focus for the Ed Committee this session include:

• Investing more in early childhood so kids are entering kindergarten prepared. That will prevent over-identifying kids with special needs, who instead didn't have any early childhood education and are behind.
• Moving away from annual standardized testing and toward a pre-No Child Left Behind world where we administered the CMT in 4, 6, and 8th grades, freeing up time for teachers to do more than basic math and literacy, and also saving districts significant money.
• Exploring the removal of some smart devices from schools to address disconnection.

None of these is the cure-all, and we still rank third in the country in public education investment per student. But it was reassuring to hear that the new leadership of the Education Committee is looking at wholistic, sustainable solutions that are designed to increase funding to all communities in Connecticut.

Some of my goals this session are to continue to improve infrastructure and transportation services in the district and across the state, as well as to address pedestrian and driver safety. The number of deaths on our roadways should be decreasing, and I’m going to be taking a very hard look at why they are not.

In addition, I have been assigned to the Finance and Public Health committees. 

Much of those funds -- $11.6 million -- will boost weekday round-trip services to and from Hartford, including  $2.4 million for a study on street-level train crossings along the Danbury Branch.

I'm excited that Connecticut has received these funds, which will significantly improve transit in our state, and bolster social and economic opportunities.