NC budget includes $5M digital credential project that appears to favor politically connected vendor

Who wrote the budget language remains unclear, but the requirements closely mirror features offered by DigiCred, one of the two companies that participated in the pilot.

Sen. Michael Lee, R-New Hanover, a co-sponsor of legislation containing the same requirements, previously worked with lobbyist and former NCGOP chairman Tom Fetzer, who now represents DigiCred before the General Assembly. The connection raises questions about whether DigiCred or its representatives had a role in shaping the technical requirements that later became state law.

In 2024, the state allocated $1 million to launch a pilot digital credentialing program at two community colleges. Cape Fear Community College received $750,000 and partnered with DigiCred, while Randolph Community College received $250,000 and partnered with Certree.

The pilot aimed to test whether students could access and control digital versions of their academic records and share them with schools and employers.The pilot colleges presented their results to the State Board of Community Colleges in July 2025. 

Board members discussed selecting a vendor for a statewide rollout, with senior leadership and legislators expected to make the decision, according to meeting minutes reviewed by NC Newsline. Subsequent board minutes through this year show no further discussion of the matter.

In April, Sens. Lee, Brad Overcash, R-Gaston, and Lisa Barnes, R-Franklin, filed Senate Bill 991, which included requirements for a statewide credential management system. 

The bill laid out specific technical requirements for the system, including how students’ credentials would be issued, managed and verified and how the system would operate within the state’s cloud environment.

The system would also have to include a mobile wallet that gives users sole control of their credentials, artificial intelligence capabilities for matching credentials with employment opportunities and blockchain-based technology for certain verification functions.

While S991 did not become law, the technical requirements for the statewide credential management system were included in the final state budget. Lee is a senior budget chair in the Senate. 

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The budget directs the North Carolina Community College System Office to contract with a vendor to provide the system across all 58 community colleges. It doesn’t name the vendor, but it lays out very specific requirements that closely resemble features described in DigiCred’s report on its Cape Fear pilot, including its student-controlled wallet, decentralized deployment architecture and artificial intelligence capabilities for matching credentials with employment opportunities.

Lee had publicly promoted some of those concepts before the budget passed. In May, while discussing S991 before the Senate Education Committee, Lee highlighted how digital wallets and AI tools could give students control over their records and match them with employment opportunities.

NC Newsline asked Lee’s office whether he was responsible for the budget provision, where the technical requirements came from, and whether he or his staff consulted with DigiCred or its representatives. 

Lee, through a spokesperson, said, “The basic premise of the language came from the Digital Wallet [DigiCred] pilot and through discussions with relevant stakeholders to ensure it was feasible at a larger scale.” The statement did not say which stakeholders. 

The N.C. Community College System, DigiCred, and Fetzer did not respond to requests for comment.

The North Carolina Department of Information Technology, which lost its procurement oversight for the community college system under legislation passed last year, did not respond to questions about whether it was consulted.