As Kentucky lawmakers debated how to fund the state's $40 billion pension shortfall, Tina Bojanowski was watching this week with a careful eye.
"I left frustrated and concerned because I planned for the worst.," she said.
The JCPS teacher sat with her education colleagues in the House gallery Monday, but in January she will take a new seat as a state representative for the 32nd district which covers part of Jefferson County.
"We need public education as an investment in our society and if we don't invest in public educators then we are not investing in our society," Bojanowski told WHAS11.
She doesn't agree with how the special session was called, but was happy it ended without a vote. House Speaker Pro Tempore David Osborne says his republican colleagues couldn't agree on the overall language of the pension bills being considered.
"As those conversations began to evolve about the differences, so did the conversations about what we needed to do about this system," Rep. Osborne said as he addressed the House.
Bojanowski decided to run for office before lawmakers passed the previous pension bill which was ruled unconstitutional last week. She considers state pensions a top priority and says she will fight to keep what teachers were promised.
"Hopefully we can give this process the time it needs for such a valuable importance in our society," she said.