She was speaking after raising the issue at a meeting of the Education Committee this morning.
The Upper Bann MLA said, "I understand that there is already a £350million gap in next year's education budget for the core business elements. This shortfall will be further compounded by the Finance Minister's proposed 2% cut.
Northern Ireland already has the lowest funding per pupil of any region of the United Kingdom. Children have been hit hard through the pandemic and everyone accepts that their education has suffered greatly because of disruption to classroom learning.
Cuts to the budget will be felt by those children and young people in our education system. Delivering the education they deserve must be a priority alongside improving our skills base which will help improve and grow our economy. All of this will take action however and would suffer as a result of cuts."