MARSHALL - Minnesota Commissioner of Education Alice Seagren on Tuesday told an audience of educators in Marshall, "my heart goes out to you," as school districts deal with what will be a tough budget year in 2009.

But, Seagren said to administrators, teachers and school board members, Gov. Tim Pawlenty has some ideas to lessen the burden.

Pawlenty wants the use of Q Comp, a teacher payment plan tied to individual and student performance, expanded, Seagren said.

Q Comp offers additional money to districts such as Marshall that implement the system.

The Marshall School District has been using Q Comp for several years. School board member Jeff Chapman said the district hears a different future for Q Comp each year.

"I don't think it's gonna go away," Seagren said of Q Comp.

Pawlenty is dedicated to its expansion, she said.

Q Comp has been criticized this year by the legislative auditor for not being used enough and not meeting the expectations when Pawlenty implemented it.

"We're very excited about its growth," Seagren said of Q Comp.

Not only is there more interest in the state, but there is also national interest in the program, Seagren said.

Q Comp is a way to reward and recognize high performing teachers and has helped raise the performance levels of students in those districts, Seagren said.

Students are also performing better than they did six years ago, Seagren said.

Pawlenty's ideas to encourage more mid-level professionals into teaching, to use ideas from other states to attract math and science college majors into teaching will help sustain the performance levels and keep quality in school, Seagren said.

While Pawlenty has proposed a wage freeze for city and county government employees, he has not proposed one for education employees.

What Pawlenty has proposed is reform in collective bargaining between teachers unions and school districts, Seagren said.

"Many superintendents told us they really wanted some help when they went to the bargaining table," Seagren said.

Pawlenty would repeal the $25 per student penalty for school districts that fail to reach teacher contract settlements by Jan. 15, 2010, Seagren said.

Pawlenty would install a fair arbitration process to replace the way contracts are now negotiated and settled, Seagren said.

School districts may also get some help from the federal stimulus package.

The early estimate is Minnesota will get about $816 million in stabilization money from the stimulus package, Seagren said.

About $677 million can be distributed to local school districts, she said, but the state must first replace any cuts in education.

There have been no proposed cuts in K-12 so far, but about $350 million in cuts to higher education have been proposed, Seagren said. The remainder can go to school districts once the cuts to higher education are replaced, she said.

Yet, that's under Pawlenty's budget; the Legislature could still cut K-12 or make bigger cuts in higher education which means there could be no additional money or not much money for school districts from the stimulus package, Seagren said.s

"Be careful when you are planning your budgets, be very conservative," Seagren said.