(RALEIGH) -- A senior Republican lawmaker is contesting reports that the recent state budget forced school systems to lay off more than 1,800 teachers and teaching assistants.

Sen. Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph, said new figures released by the North Carolina Employment Security Commission later this month will paint a much different picture. “You will see there are few, if any, teaching positions lost – or teacher assistants. In the budget, we funded the need for all of the teachers and all of the teacher assistants,” said Tillman. “Every year you have people leaving for various reasons that get pink slips. That’s not because they weren’t funded this year.”

Tillman also insisted that by passing a budget in June – before the start of the fiscal year - school officials were able to make hiring decisions much sooner compared to previous years.

Progress North Carolina, a liberal-leaning non-profit organization, said Republicans have fallen short of their promise to protect the classroom. Gerrick Brenner, the group’s executive director, argued that the budget’s impact goes way beyond the 1853 pink slips that have already been handed out to educators.

“About 4300 positions were eliminated in the classroom,” Brenner added. “These aren’t bus drivers, cafeteria workers and custodians. These are classroom jobs which during budget debate everyone seemed to be so fixated on.”

Brenner also criticized members of the Joint Education Oversight Committee for discussing things such as digital textbooks instead of addressing teaching positions cut by the budget. But House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, said the panel will look at the issue of teacher layoffs once schools have an accurate, final count.