$3.5 billion are being funneled into schools that need improvement from the federal government, which may include several schools in Wiregrass. The money, allotted by the Obama administration is for schools across the nation.

Henry County Schools Superintendent Dennis Coe said, "I think they have the right intention in that we all in public schools want our schools to perform better and we know we have to be more competitive in a world-wide economy."

But the changes will come at a cost, less local control and more federal regulation.

Superintendent Coe said, "We go into this cautiously and if we feel like in the long run the negative impact of the federal guidelines will outweigh it, we simply won't apply."

Superintendent Coe has two schools in his county that qualify to apply for the grant.

He thinks the changes he would be forced to implement in order to receive the funding may be too drastic.

"Some of the other stipulations would be to replace half of the staff at a school and again we have situations in our county where you may be able to identify two or three teachers who are contributing to a schools poor performance but instead of being able to deal with them these guidelines would require us to eliminate half of the staff," Coe said.

Six schools in the Dothan City Schools system qualify for the grant. They are already showing improvement and so could receive money with more flexible federal regulations.

Dothan City Schools Superintendent Sam Nichols said, "We are a tier three school so we can apply for grants that will help us continue reform initiatives we have underway now so we plan to apply for money to allow us to do that."

Most school systems can't afford not to apply, despite the regulations tied to the money.

“With the financial crisis we are facing in this system and across the state it is very important that we get the additional dollars from the federal level to help us continue the work we are doing in this school system, said Nichols.