TRAVERSE CITY -- It's no surprise that school districts across the state are facing a financial crisis, but some relief could be on the way with extra federal Recovery Act money.

"What the state needs to do is look at the application, look at the requirements for it and make sure we don't have any statutory limitations that's going to prevent us from getting the money in the first place," says Traverse City Area Public Schools director of technology, Todd Neibauer.

Neibauer is talking about a hearing that's scheduled to place next week with the Senate Education Committee and Michigan school administrators.

The group plans to talk about the state trying to win grant money for schools as part of the Obama Administration's Race to the Top competition.

"In the things I've seen from the department of education there's talks about getting between $300 and $400 million for the state of Michigan from that grant source," says Neibauer.

It's a large sum of money that Neibauer says could help with TCAPS innovations.

"If the money comes it's very important to have this as a basis for making change but then afterwards you're responsible for carrying that on," says Neibauer.

Plus, the grant money could help not just TCAPS budget, but school budgets across Michigan.

"You look at operation expenses here and it's no secret there's problems for us and lots of other schools because of the lack of funding that's coming in right now.  So having such a large pot of money to go towards innovation efforts is really important to us," says Neibauer.

Neibauer says if the state receives the grant money, it would go towards data systems for tracking student achievement and assessment types of opportunities for TCAPS.