(RALEIGH) -- North Carolina House Speaker Tom Tillis has been touring the state recently holding town hall meetings and answering questions about such issues as teacher job losses. Tillis he said the number of classroom jobs cut has been exaggerated.

"I think you have to go back to May and June.  Folks were saying that our budget was going to cut 20,000 to 30,000 teacher jobs.  The number is somewhere south of 2,000 and we're not even clear that those were actual jobs cut versus positions that weren't filled. That's what we're working on now," said Tillis.

Tillis added that he wants to make the dilemma the state faces between revenue and spending priorities a little bit more real.  Tillis is reaching the half-way point of his tour of the state.