DC Strategic Breakfast with James McCarroll

Date: May 14, 2025 Participants: Gary Sheng, Samuel Armes, Ron Roberts, James C. McCarroll, Josh (Bowser), Erin (California), Jessica Jones Location: Washington, DC

Overview

This breakfast meeting brought together key figures from education, legal, political, and criminal justice reform spaces. The discussion covered Alpha Schools' educational model, prison education reform opportunities, potential partnerships with federal agencies, and various strategic initiatives. Gary Sheng presented Alpha's vision while James McCarroll provided strategic advice on positioning when approaching government stakeholders. The meeting reflected high-level networking aimed at expanding Alpha's influence and exploring potential collaborations in DC.

Key Discussion Points

Alpha Schools Positioning and Model

Gary presented Alpha Schools as a revolutionary educational approach:

"We have Joe Lamont. The sixth richest man in Austin...I'm someone that would only be advocating for something where people have skin in the game. Is there anything bigger than skin in the game than having your kids go through your product, right?"

Gary emphasized the AI-adaptive learning approach:

"You can now democratize over time, hyper-personalized AI learning, where everyone gets up to the baseline. We brought students that were bottom 10% to median test scoring. And we brought median test scoring kids to top 1%, right?"

He positioned their education model as inevitable:

"In terms of the general structure of it, this is going to be the future of education."

AI Engineering Bootcamp

Gary described Alpha's AI engineering bootcamp, framing it as highly selective and rigorous:

"The selection process is you need to score a 99 percentile IQ test...as well as a coding assessment. You spend 100 hours a week for 10 weeks."

"Every quarter we produce some of the best engineers of the future that know how to use the best tools in the world to create software faster and better than anyone else."

James McCarroll advised Gary to lead with these achievements when meeting with government officials:

"Lead with the talent, attack the accomplishments, right? You know, run the leading AI boot camps every month."

Prison Education and First Step Act

Jessica Jones discussed implementation challenges with the First Step Act for prison education:

"Once it was passed, and we got through the flurry of legislation...we started realizing that there were enhanced prisons that don't have classrooms."

"Bill Marshall is in...the new director. We just went to a scoring in like a week and a half ago, so he's hitting the ground running. He's doing things like he's brought in SpaceX to recalculate everybody's good time credits."

Gary immediately offered Alpha's technology solution:

"If you need any help, let me know. I have hundreds of engineers." "We can literally create tablets from scratch, by the way... We have our own operating system."

James McCarroll's Strategic Advice

McCarroll provided valuable positioning advice for approaching government agencies:

"Think about how you would modify your technology, how you could apply your technology to teach the textbook and video portion...how long it would take you to build that out, how it could be deployed through tablets."

"Talk about achievements. Tell me about these AI bootcamps."

"Numbers like this are really compelling... It makes it sound important."

Political Networking and White House Access

Samuel Armes discussed upcoming White House meetings:

"Who are you meeting with at the White House? Paula White...And when? Around lunch. Friday... 12:30."

"I told them about Alpha Schools... My ask of Jim, literally I asked Jim, I want to meet with Michael Kratios, Office of Science and Technology, the EO. He said, okay, let's set up a meeting."

Samuel positioned Gary as the key decision-maker:

"I've hyped up Gary because they want to meet with Joe because Jim's gonna want Joe as a client. I've said Gary is the decision maker for everything. You want Joe as a client, you go through Gary."

250th Anniversary of America Initiative

Gary expressed interest in the 250th anniversary celebration planning:

"Do you all know anyone working on the 250th anniversary?... It's an absolute travesty."

"What my vision is for the 250th anniversary, it's a world's fair. It's a high-tech celebration, but also of all of our cultures across all of our states and geographies."

"We know all the top entertainers in the country. We know all the top pastors in the country. We know the best technologists in the country. We know the foremost thought leaders in charter cities and everything. We can make this happen."

Future Vision for Alpha Schools

Gary outlined expansion plans for specialized education:

"We believe that for every track that matters to the future, we're going to create the best rules in the world for that."

"The way that we would do it is we would find the best trainer in the world for that. SOP the heck out of what they're doing. Put it into an AI training platform, but also to whatever extent that you just need hands-on people that oversee it, we pay them very handsomely to get to a blueprint, essentially, that we would trust to scale."

Strategic Relationships

The meeting revealed several key strategic relationships:

• James McCarroll: Positioned as a potential gateway to government contracts and partnerships
• Jessica Jones: First Step Act implementer with prison education needs
• Josh (Bowser): Connected to James McCarroll and appears to be a facilitator
• Samuel Armes: Setting up high-level meetings including potential White House access
• Michael Kratios: Identified as a key target at Office of Science and Technology
• Paula White: White House connection for a planned meeting

Next Steps

1. White House Meeting: Gary to meet with Paula White at 12:30 on Friday
2. Meeting with Michael Kratios: Samuel attempting to arrange a meeting to discuss AI in education
3. Follow-up with Bill Marshall: Potential opportunity to assist with First Step Act implementation
4. Refine Presentation Approach: Gary to incorporate James's advice about leading with achievements
5. Potential Prison Education Collaboration: Explore opportunities to provide tablet-based education

Notable Quotes

"This administration is moving very, very fast. Very fast. In shocking ways. It all revolves around Trump, but he's now empowering others." - James McCarroll

"I've hyped up Gary because they want to meet with Joe because Jim's gonna want Joe as a client. I've said Gary is the decision maker for everything." - Samuel Armes

"We're going to create a festival, and what Paula White was really excited to meet with me at the White House to talk about, is a festival that I call God Wave Festival, which is meant to be a trans-denominational Christian [event]." - Gary Sheng

"Look, I think everything is so malleable, I really believe that. Do the right thing, do the right thing. I'm incredibly optimistic about that." - Gary Sheng

The meeting demonstrated high-level strategic networking with an emphasis on positioning Alpha Schools for partnerships with government agencies and influential figures in DC. The conversations revealed multiple potential collaboration pathways, particularly in prison education reform and AI-driven educational initiatives.