(RALEIGH) -- North Carolina needs to find a better way to fund its schools, according to North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman David Parker. He said that teacher layoffs could have been prevented this year if the state had kept a temporary sales tax.

"We lost some 13,000 educators in return for sales tax being reduced an average of $157 per citizen here in North Carolina.  I think that we're going to see problems in the public schools from that particularly in the lower grades," said Parker.

Parker added that the income tax system is unfair.  He believes the tax rates for top wage earners are too low.