(RALEIGH) -- House budget writers are considering deep cuts in funding for teacher assistants and other non-instructional positions in order to close a projected budget gap of more than $2 billion. The draft proposal released Tuesday would reduce K-12 spending by 9 percent, which translates to a $694 million cut. That’s roughly double the amount recommended earlier this year by Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue.

Rep. Bryan Holloway, R-Rockingham, said the primary goal was to fund teaching positions. He still called other options painful, including plans to shed as many as 8,700 teacher assistant positions. “A lot of school systems have already done that in some degree. My mother, she teaches in Wilkes County, and in her school she said they only have one [teaching assistant] in second grade and none in third grade,” said Holloway.

House Democrats quickly raised concerns about the cuts in teaching assistant positions. “What it looks like to me is that North Carolina is on the road to destroy public education,” said Rep. Earline Parmon, D-Forsyth, shortly after budget options were released the education subcommittee. “I’m just overwhelmed looking at what’s being proposed and how it’s going to impact education for our young people in North Carolina.”

State universities would face a 15.5 percent cut, although administrators would have greater flexibility to determine where those reductions should occur. However, Holloway downplayed the actual cut to the UNC system. “They do receive a tremendous amount of federal money and other receipts,” said Holloway. “And so overall, their cut probably is in the single digits when you factor in all the funds. ”

Still, UNC System president Tom Ross said the budget proposals would result in irreparable damage to academic quality and reputation. “To put this in context, a cut of this magnitude is equivalent to the entire state appropriations for UNC Asheville, UNC Greensboro, UNC Wilmington, Western Carolina University, and Winston-Salem State University combined,” said Ross in a prepared statement. “Cuts at this level would require eliminating approximately 3,200 faculty and staff positions across the University and eliminating 240,000 class seats. As a result, students would find themselves in far larger classes and would find that courses they need for graduation are no longer offered or are only offered sporadically. ”

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education is scheduled to continue discussions on the proposed options on Wednesday.