North Carolina's Democratic chairman joined his party's assault on proposed Republican budget cuts Friday, blasting a GOP effort to tie cuts to the extension of unemployment benefits for 37,000 North Carolinians.

"They want to hold 37,000 North Carolinians hostage," David Parker told reporters outside Charlotte's East Mecklenburg High. "They just want to make those good people miserable in order to devastate the education system."

Parker criticized a state GOP budget that includes deep cuts in state spending. Democrats say that it would cut 21,000 jobs at elementary and secondary schools and 3,200 positions in the university system.

On Thursday the GOP-controlled House and Senate passed measures tying the extension of federal unemployment benefits to a bill that that would force Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue to agree to reduce state spending by 13 percent on July 1 if no budget is finalized.

"It is troubling that Gov. Perdue and her big government allies are attempting to score political points with the unemployment benefits of 37,000 unemployed North Carolinians when it was the inaction and incompetence of Gov. Perdue and her administration that got in to this mess in the first place," state GOP Chairman Robin Hayes said in a statement.

Parker said voters "let a Trojan Horse into the General Assembly" when they elected Republican majorities last fall.

Jordan Shaw, a spokesman for GOP House Speaker Thom Tillis of Cornelius, said Democrats "continue to think that throwing money at this education problem is the only way to fix it.

"This isn't just about money," he said. "This is about getting better outcomes out for the education system."