Dispatch 02The receipts · Written elsewhere

Read the bills. The receipts are in the text.

SB 990 and SB 1006 are the bills currently in front of the NC General Assembly. They authorize a wallet-rail pilot, a credential layer, and a study on consolidating K-12 disbursement. ExcelinEd’s implementation guide names these as the administrative infrastructure a state puts in place before taking an ESA program universal. The text below is verbatim from the filed bills. I will get out of the way where I can.

00Disclosure

One of the primary sponsors of SB 1006 is Sen. Dana Caudill Jones, the current NC State Senator for District 31 (Forsyth and Stokes counties). I am running against her in 2026. I would be writing this up regardless. Stating it on the record.

Source
SB 990 primary sponsors: Lee, Galey, Overcash. Additional: Moffitt, Sanderson.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2025/S990
SB 1006 primary sponsors: Lee, Jones, Corbin. Additional: Moffitt, Overcash.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2025/S1006

Source
SourceWatch, “North Carolina ALEC Politicians.”sourcewatch.org

01SB 990 · the wallet rail

SB 990 builds the wallet.
SEAA holds the keys.

Two sections do the structural work. One asks whether public-school funding should move to SEAA, the agency that already runs the voucher program. The other establishes the per-student wallet itself, with a vendor option built in.

01.1 · SB 990 · Sec. 2(a)(2)

Study whether to move public-school disbursement out of DPI.

DPI is the constitutional K-12 agency. SEAA runs the Opportunity Scholarship voucher program. The bill asks, in one sentence, whether public-school money should flow through the same pipe as voucher money.

Bill text · verbatimSB 990 · Sec. 2(a)(2)

Whether to transition from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to the State Education Assistance Authority the responsibility of disbursing any funds to local school administrative units.

01.2 · SB 990 · Sec. 3(a)

Establish the per-student wallet pilot.

Per-student dollar amount. Aid-disbursing agency. One public school unit selected to participate. The standard ESA template, filed under the word “pilot.”

Bill text · verbatimSB 990 · Sec. 3(a)

There is established the Student-Based Educational Wallet Pilot Program (Pilot) for the 2027-2028 fiscal year to be administered by the State Education Assistance Authority (Authority) in coordination with one public school unit selected by the Authority to participate in the Pilot.

Source
SB 990 §§ 2(a)(2), 3(a), 3(k). Filed Apr 30, 2026 (2025-2026 session).ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2025/S990

02SB 1006 · the credential rail

SB 1006 builds the credential layer
and the marketplace it serves.

SB 1006 sets identity rails strong enough to carry high-stakes financial transactions, drops the licensure requirement for state-funded instructors in a new staffing category, preempts local zoning for school siting, and writes specific vendors into specific dollar lines.

02.1 · SB 1006 · Sec. 2.1(d)

Identity proofing at IAL3. Non-custodial mobile wallet.

SB 1006 §2.1(d) specifies the technical standards (W3C Verifiable Credentials, NIST IAL3 identity proofing, non-custodial mobile digital wallet) for a credential infrastructure the bill describes as student-credential portability for community college transitions. The same standards at the same specifications are what EdChoice’s published ESA Implementation Guide names as the architecture for ESA marketplace operation. NC’s existing ESA+ program already runs on ClassWallet, one of five named ESA platform vendors operating across the country. SB 990 and SB 1006 are not introducing the wallet rail. They are scaling a system NCSEAA has run for years on a national-standard vendor.

Bill text · verbatimSB 1006 · Sec. 2.1(d)

W3C Verifiable Credentials, OpenBadges, AnonCreds. NIST IAL3 identity proofing. Decentralized deployment operating as a network appliance within the State's controlled cloud environment. A non-custodial mobile digital wallet. Blockchain-based mechanisms solely for publishing tamper-resistant public keys and service endpoints, without storing any personally identifiable information or credential data on-chain.

02.2 · SB 1006 · Sec. 1.6

Exempt a class of state-funded instructors from teacher licensure.

G.S. 115C-295 is the statute requiring teacher licensure in North Carolina. This section overrides it, by name, for a specific category of state-funded instructor.

Bill text · verbatimSB 1006 · Sec. 1.6

Notwithstanding G.S. 115C-295 and any related State Board of Education rules, learning lab facilitators shall not be required to hold teacher licensure.

02.3 · SB 1006 · Sec. 1.8

State preemption of local zoning for school siting.

“Public school unit” under G.S. 115C-5 includes charter schools, regional schools, lab schools, and innovative school zones. State preemption of local zoning, applied to a category broader than traditional districts.

Bill text · verbatimSB 1006 · Sec. 1.8

In areas zoned for commercial use, zoning regulations shall permit, by right or by special use, the siting of a school building that is primarily used for the instruction of students and is under the control of a public school unit as defined in G.S. 115C-5.

03The procurement lines

Specific dollars.
Specific vendors.

SB 1006 routes appropriations to named vendors, in some cases outside the DPI allotment system. When money moves from allotment to direct grant, the audit trail thins. Below is the line-item picture.

Learning Accelerator facilitator allotment (DPI)

SB 1006 §1.6(b) · recurring · SparkNC is named eligible partner

$8,855,000

Direct grant to SparkNC for admin costs

SB 1006 §1.6(c) · recurring · vendor named in statute

$6,500,000

Directed grant to SparkNC for startup

SB 1006 §1.6(d) · nonrecurring · available through FY 2028-29

$5,780,000

Khan Academy / Khanmigo

SB 1006 §1.12(b) · AI Academic Support Program · sole source

$10,060,560

Source
SparkNC lines: SB 1006 §1.6(b) Learning Accelerator facilitator allotment to DPI; §1.6(c) recurring direct grant to SparkNC, Inc.; §1.6(d) nonrecurring directed grant to SparkNC, Inc. (start-up). Khanmigo line: SB 1006 §1.12(b), establishing the AI Academic Support Program at G.S. 115C-650. All amounts verbatim from the filed bill text.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2025/S1006

The Khanmigo line is a $10M sole-source appropriation under §1.12(b) (a new AI Academic Support Program added to Chapter 115C) for one vendor’s generative-AI tutoring product, written into a budget bill before any published pilot evaluation. The SparkNC lines under §1.6 are three separate appropriations: §1.6(b) funds the new Learning Accelerator facilitator allotment through DPI ($8.855M recurring, with SparkNC as the only named eligible partner in the bill); §1.6(c) is a $6.5M recurring direct grant to SparkNC for administrative costs; §1.6(d) is a $5.78M nonrecurring directed grant to SparkNC for start-up costs (available through June 30, 2029). One vendor, named in statute, on three concurrent funding tracks.

04The federal coupling

HB 87 plugs NC
into the federal money.

The state bills do not live alone. House Bill 87 has four primary sponsors: N. Jackson, Biggs, Schietzelt, and Eddins. Brian Biggs (R-Randolph) introduced the bill on the floor; Eddins carries the “(Primary)” lead-of-record tag on ncleg.gov. HB 87 opts North Carolina into the Educational Choice for Children Act framework that arrived in the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025. ECCA is a scholarship tax-credit pipeline: federal dollars flow through a private scholarship-granting organization to private-school tuition.

Governor Stein vetoed HB 87. The override has not held as of this writing. The wallet rail (SB 990) and the credential rail (SB 1006) are the state-side prerequisites. HB 87 is the connector.

Source
HB 87, NC General Assembly 2025 session.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2025/H87

05The published playbook

These bills are not novel.
They have step numbers.

ExcelinEd’s 2022 ESA Implementation Guide spells out the sequence states use to take a voucher program universal. Step 4 is the digital wallet. Step 8 is the credential layer that onboards service providers at scale. SB 990 is Step 4. SB 1006 §2.1(d) is Step 8.

Source
ExcelinEd, “Opportunity ESA Implementation Guide” (2022).Wayback capture

06The shape of it

Funding rail. Credential rail. A marketplace. The bills are part of a phased rollout of a defined plan.

01

Read the bills.

SB 990, SB 1006, HB 87. The receipts are public.

02

Call your senator.

Whether or not they filed one of these bills, ask whether they will vote to advance them.

03

Vote in November.

Vote for candidates who read the bills before they vote on them.

Next dispatch

Read the playbook these bills follow→