DFI Partner Spotlight: FEPPP and the power of partnership

In this interview, long-time DFI partner and FEPPP Executive Director Tracy Godat shares why it’s important to invest in professional development for educators to help the new generation of students have access to quality financial education.

What keeps you motivated while working in financial education?

Every day, I see the benefits of good, sound financial education in our work with educators. I understand from working with those teachers the impact financial education has had on students and the difference we can make to their lives. We can use our partnership to reach underserved and underrepresented communities, and it's very motivating to see how we can provide resources and materials now because we haven’t had the capacity over the years.

Can you give a quick historical overview of the Financial Education Public-Private Partnership (FEPPP)?

FEPPP launched in 2005, and I believe the funding came through in 2006. I've been involved since late 2006, and I’m really the only person at the agency that has actually overseen this program. It started off as a small program where the legislature built a public-private partnership that would require the state to put an intention on expanding financial education. And it’s evolved a lot over time.

I started with 10 hours a month in administrative support, specifically in math assessment, at the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). In 2015, I was able to move out of the assessment role and focus on FEPPP. At that time, based on the way the legislation was written, they discovered that FEPPP could hire me and be administratively housed at OSPI. So, at that moment, FEPPP became its own agency, and could function like the State Board of Education and the Professional Educator Standards Board.

That was when I was able to build it and institutionalize it, as its own independent agency. And now, we're administratively housed at OSPI as one of the educational boards. However, the difference is that FEPPP is a content area — financial education, which is recognized like mathematics, science, English language arts (ELA), and other content areas. So, we're kind of on both sides: We're one of the boards and commissions, so we have that autonomy, but we're also embedded with other content areas. Our work is interdependent with other content areas and other programs at OSPI, and there is constant collaboration.

This month is Financial Aid Awareness Month. What information or message would you like to share with Washington teachers (and their students and parents) through this interview?

When discussing financial education, SO much information, resources, workshops, webinars are free. Our partners have them for free, and we have them free of charge. Of course, there are some paid-for resources, but we have a list at FEPPP.org that are free materials, and people can just start taking a quick look at what's out there. It doesn't have to be an overwhelming, time-consuming or costly process. By taking little bites at a time, people can really make a big difference in their life.

What is your personal take on building partnerships, and can you also speak to the importance of partnerships for FEPPP?

If I could go to every single state in the United States and tell them that they need to have a FEPPP in their state, I would do that. Because partnerships have so much value, we can do so many more things and reach so many more communities.

Partners can identify in their own communities where they need resources, guidance, or help. They can tell us where those needs are, so that we can help support.

I understand FEPPP now has started a grant program for school districts to bring financial education to their schools. Would you like to share some information about that?

Every person in our state should be very proud that every legislator in Washington, in the Senate and in the House, passed Senate Bill 5720 unanimously, with not one nay vote out of any at the hearings. So, they're able to give us that money to build this grant program, which will make financial education grants available that every school district has the opportunity to apply for. We're still in the process of working with the contractor to build the grant criteria to make sure it's meaningful and sustainable. The application will be available late spring. The money that's associated with that will be over the next three school years, beginning July 1.

FEPPP has hired bilingual staff recently. What can Spanish speakers in Washington look forward to with this change?

For the first time, we have staff that allow us to be intentional about resources that are in another language. Right now, our skill set is limited to Spanish, but at some point, we hope to be able to expand beyond that. I’ve been able to have my staff, who are bilingual, review materials from partners that have materials in Spanish. And either they can say “they're really good,” or if they see some problems, “here's where we see some problems within the materials.”

We've done outreach to these partners in particular and they have made it a priority to improve their materials because they see the value of our reach to K-12 educators and students. That is where we've been able to really leverage the partnership. If they're willing to revise materials, we are happy to make those resources available, so it's really a win-win.

I've also had meetings with the Assistant Superintendent at OSPI for the multilingual programs in efforts to seek input on our resources.

In addition, with the state Superintendent having a priority on dual language schools, we are beginning to build resources that will support those dual-language programs. For example, we are starting with children's literature, identifying books in Spanish and English, then we will provide supporting lessons in both languages. I think that's going to be very helpful.

Last week, I spoke with Jackie Ferrado from WSAC about WA529 program. She mentioned partnering with FEPPP, can you speak to this relationship?

We have the benefit of putting some of our partners into classrooms and delivering the financial education themselves. Some of our partners are just great resources, so that we can understand each other's work and support each other through networking. Jackie at Washington 529 has been an excellent partner with her ability to network.

Our work may be different, but at the end of the day, their program — and also CENTS’s Don’t Get Debt Slapped program — can make a huge difference in reducing student loan debt. I've had two teachers within the last six months tell me they are retiring while still paying their student loan debt. That's where I would like to see us make a change.

FEPPP is also an outreach partner of DFI’s. Would you give an overview of how FEPPP and DFI have collaborated in the past to bring financial education to Washington communities?

DFI has been such a great partner for us. We were operating on a very tight budget up until the state legislature passed the bill last year. Without DFI and their partnership, we couldn't have done the teacher trainings that we've been able to do. The trainings allowed us to give professional development to educators at no cost to them and no cost to their districts. And that's just been amazing. Districts are tapped out on their budgets.

We have trained about 2200 teachers. The majority of them have been with the support of the Department of Financial Institutions.

In true vein of a public-private partnership, we used state appropriations as well as generous contributions from partners, and DFI has continued to support FEPPP. I had a vision of getting teachers together to help draft the financial education standards. Through DFI’s generous support, we were able to convene educators into workgroups and do the work needed to complete the draft standards.

Is there anything that we haven't talked about during this interview that you would like to share?

Washington State is approaching financial education currently with the funding from the legislature. It's allowing us to focus on the professional development for educators. Nationally, 15% of educators are prepared or have the confidence to teach financial education.

I’m asked practically every day: “Financial education - why isn't it a requirement? It's so important. Everyone believes in it. I didn't have it. I'd like my kids to have it.” These are conversations that are not new.

We have to invest in the professional development first. By building up confidence and content knowledge of educators, along with resources FEPPP is building, we can better support districts and educators to teach and integrate this content.

I think that this is going be a winning formula. Other states right now are looking at us. They're watching us; they're seeing how this rolls out. I really think that, by the end of this four-year grant program, we are going to show districts how they can integrate this, implement it, expand without a big cost, and without it taking away from what they're already doing.

We have had great support across the state with our partners, many have been doing this work for years and it's just coming to a whole new place with the support from the legislature.