Federal Funding in Education

Ever wondered who ensures federal education dollars make it to classrooms where they can truly impact student learning? Faith Goshay, an Education Specialist with the Alabama State Department of Education, pulls back the curtain on this critical process during our interview at the Alabama Federal Programs Conference.

Spotlight 4 Success: Spotlight 4 Success

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book
Company.
I am Devin Pintosi, your host.
We are here at the AlabamaFederal Programs Conference with
Faith Gaucher.
Hello, she is an educationspecialist with the Alabama
State Department of Education.
Welcome, faith.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Thank you.
Thank you, how are you today?

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Wonderful Faith.
Tell us a little bit about whatyou do and your role with the
State Department, and what kindof things brought you here to
this conference.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Okay, I am an education specialist, as Devin
said, with the Federal ProgramsDepartment for the State
Department of Education, and sowhat we do, my main role is I
will work with a region in thestate of Alabama and we work on
processing and approving theirconsolidated application for
their federal funding.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
That sounds very important.
It is.
It is kind of importantAbsolutely.
Without the funding the dreamscan't happen, Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Absolutely Faith.
Can you tell?
Dreams can't happen, Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Absolutely Faith.
Can you tell us a bit aboutyour journey?
What got you into this role andwhat did you do previous that
inspired you forward?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Okay, I started out as an elementary school teacher.
I moved here I guess I can'tquite figure out how many years
it's been, it's been somewherebetween 18 and 20 years.
I started out as a teacher,classroom teacher.
I was also a technologycoordinator, ib coordinator,
then assistant principal andthen, most recently, before

(01:38):
coming to the department, Iserved as a principal for 10
years, and then it was just timefor a change, and so this
position became available andthe opportunity presented itself
.
So here I am.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
At American Book Company in Woodstock, Georgia,
we are committed to yourstudents' success.
As you can see behind me, wehave our workbooks and we have
online testing and e-books thatgo on fancy iPads over here, for
instance.
We have online testing ande-books that go on fancy iPads
over here, for instance.
They're all designed to helpyour students succeed and have
higher test scores on theirhigh-stakes assessments.
Give us a call 888-264-5877, orfind us on the web, abck12.com,

(02:17):
and you can receive a freetrial or a free preview book of
your choice.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Bye-bye, that's great.
That's great.
I understand you are also amember here at the conference on
the conference committee.
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yes, part of.
We plan several differentconferences and one of them that
we plan every year is thespring conference, and so, being
a newbie on the staff, we gotto work on the planning
committee and so we've just beenworking for the last several
months on, just, you know,making sure that everybody got
registered, making sureeverything all the vendors got

(02:51):
here, and just making sure thateverything was put together and
goes off without a hitch.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Well, we appreciate it.
This conference has beenincredible, thanks to the work
of her faith and her committee.
That's wonderful.
Do you have some ideas aboutwhat's going to be perhaps the
theming or some new things thatare going to happen for next
year?

Speaker 2 (03:10):
I know one of the big things that everybody is
wondering, like what's happeningwith federal dollars?
And I think we find out, youknow, the same time everybody
else finds out, and so, just youknow, the advice that we have
been given and that we sharewith LEAs is just continue to do
what you're doing and as thingshappen, as things change, we

(03:32):
will let you all know.
But, you know, just continuingto use those federal dollars to
make sure that students arelearning and they're being
successful.
That's, you know, that's whatwe have done and that's what we
will continue to do.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Oh, that is just wonderful.
Thank you so much, faith Cochet, with the Alabama State
Department of Education.
Thank you so much for beingwith us today.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Thank you, and thank you all for being a vendor and
for helping us make thisconference happen.