Dana Point based attorney Craig P. Alexander makes his living suing cities, school districts and the state of California in cases related to the disclosure of public records-- legally protected under the California Public Records Act.
Sounds great, right? We love transparency and having access to all the records related to our elected representatives, policy decisions, civic life and the legislature.
Except transparency is hardly Craig's goal.
MR. ALEXANDER GOES TO GLENDALE
Folks have started to notice that Craig is especially focused on issues that bother his particular self-described "evangelical christianity." Local parent group GUSD Parents for Public Schools first looked into Craig when, in the midst of a season of violence and upheaval at Glendale and other local school board meetings, his name showed up on a list of folks who'd requested records from Glendale Unified.
What stood out then was Alexander's focus on soon-to-be school board candidate Aneta Krpekyan, frequent Jordan Henry collaborator Dorit Waldman, and curricular content related to "CRT," "SEL" and "gender support plans."
The records Craig Alexander requested overlapped with other material which Jordan Henry, Aneta Krpekyan, and their reactionary group Leave Our Kids Alone (LOKA) used to generate outrage, spread disinformation, and misleadingly present curriculum and professional development materials to enrage and activate their radicalized followers.
Further research into Alexander reveals he is a well-connected political operative, former losing school board candidate, and ideologically radical attorney with a long record of using CPRA to fish for "controversial" materials on behalf of well-funded and politically powerful legal entities and think tanks. The plan appears to be: find something "controversial", create a lawsuit, and intimidate school boards into lengthy legal filings. The end results are financially weakened school districts and divided communities. (Even a dumb lawsuit has to be addressed). The onslaught of PRA requests in GUSD in 2022 and 2023 required the district to contract out the requests, eating into general funds that would have otherwise gone to support students.
Alexander's CPRA presence in Glendale points to the larger network and coordinated efforts to attack public schools, teachers unions, and inclusive civil rights protections statewide and nationally.
GUSD Parents for Public Schools published initial research into Craig P. Alexander in a twitter thread from July 2023- that research is used and expanded upon here.
BIGGER THAN GUSD
While Craig operates a private practice, his firm has worked on behalf of the Center for American Liberty, the right-wing legal activist organization founded in 2018 by Harmeet Dhillon (Dhillon is currently the Trump administration nominee for Assitant Attorney General for Civil Rights, likely a reward for her role in numerous lawsuits challenging the legitimacy of the 2020 election on behalf of Trump's false claims).
With CAL, Alexander sued the CA Dept of health, Alameda County and the city Los Angeles regarding pandemic safety measures in 2020. From there, like Moms for Liberty complaints and the histrionic school board rants of Jordan Henry types locally and nationwide, the materials that provided fodder for Alexander's complaints shifted from masks and vaccines, to critical race theory, ethnic studies, and gender theory to every other "culture war" topic that's driven suburban "mama bears" to domestic terrorist tactics over the course of 5 years. This is evident in a 2024 Alexander-filed complaint, on behalf of CAL, against LAUSD in which a broad array of "culture war" topics are requested, likely with the intent to use them for future legal or legislative action, or to generate outrage in support of both.
IT'S ALWAYS THE SAME ROTTEN ROOT - ALEC AND CPC
To explain Alexander's tactics and areas of focus, we only have to look as far as California's #1 anti-public school, anti-union, anti-lgbtq+ political influence operation: the California Policy Center. In the California "parents' rights movement" you'll struggle to find any one group or actor who isn't tied to the CPC in some way. This non-profit think tank is the CA branch of the State Policy Network- the billionaire funded "the policy, communications, and litigation arm of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)."
Basically, ALEC writes policy positions and model legislation designed to advance extremely conservative funders political goals-- protection and proliferation of the gas, oil, and fracking industries, destruction of labor unions and worker protections, privatization of public education, broad deregulation, and tax breaks for the wealthy
SPN chapters fund and enact these lobbying and legislative efforts. These efforts include the recruitment, activation, and training of local actors so we frequently see the CPC represented on panel discussions, at trainings, and hosting press conferences and rallies designed to promote their narratives and energize their followers.
As CPC's chief legal counsel Craig Alexander wrote a series of blog posts promoting charter schools and opposing teachers unions and labor unions broadly. He also wrote for years on right-leaning OC focused blog, OCPolitical, there publishing his endorsements in each election, many of whom are CPC-endorsed of connected in some way, noting his preference for "candidates, initiatives and measures from a pro-life, pro-traditional family, less taxation and less government point of view."
Craig Alexander has also worked with the Heritage Foundation, speaking at at least one workshop to train parents on the weaponized use of the CPRA. The Heritage Foundation is one of several large dark money funded right wing entities which has spent considerable energy and resources on the war on public education- publishing a toolkit to teach reactionary leaning parents to push for anti-inclusion measures in their local school districts.
CRAIG ALEXANDER IS AT IT AGAIN
A recent request into the individuals and groups who are making CPRA requests in GUSD reveals that along with folks likely to be pseudonyms for Jordan Henry and his allies, Alexander has continued to make requests about materials which have conveniently made their way into reactionary social media accounts like "Make Glendale Great Again" "GUSD Parents Voices" and the accounts of ongoing agitators Jordan Henry, Aneta Krpekyan, Ray Shelton, and Maro Yacoubian. Not satisfied with attacks on comprehensive sex education, LGBTQ+ rights and representation, and anyone not a Christian conservative, Alexander and the groups he is connected with have broadened their scope to include Women's studies.
While the district has so far rebuffed attempts to create controversy around the Women's Studies course or its text book (in large part, most likely, due to the fact that the course is not currently offered at any GUSD school) it's clear that in the ongoing escalation of the reactionary anti-public education, anti-union, anti-inclusivity movement in California Craig P. Alexander has played a central role as advocate, educator, and activist -- and shows no signs of stopping.
GUSD's schools board has 3 seats up for election in June 2026.
UPDATE: Since posting, other school districts have reported Craig P. Alexander seeking material related to targeted subject areas and student populations, likely with the goal of further undermining inclusive public education.
Craig, again with Center for American Liberty, sued Burbank Unified School District sought a broad array of material related to gender support plans, ethnic studies, social emotional learning, diversity, equity and inclusion, transgenderism and social justice, among other targeted programs/curricula.
It's worth noting that public taxpayer funds are used by school districts and municipalities to deal with these ideologically motivated legal attacks. Meanwhile, CAL is a non-profit legal organization which took in over $6 million in tax free revenue in 2023 alone.
Multiple instances of Craig's activities are publicly available in Carlsbad Unified School District:
Gender support plans, DEI, Social Emotional Learning, Pride, Ethnic Studies- Craig's never met an inclusive practice he didn't want to discredit.
In predictable fashion, Craig also represented an anti-abortion group in their vendetta agains UCSF-requests made over multiple years reveal Alexander's tactics and dedication to helping prosecute right wing grievances.
While Craig's tactics are legal, they are a clear example of anti-state lawfare- legal strategies designed to use the law to target and drain resources from public institutions. While the power and funding balance is dramatically uneven, average citizens can still employ public records to support and amplify our own narratives. Luckily, for those who want to learn more about making public records requests, Craig has a presentation available just for you! A good place to start would be requesting all records between your elected officials and Craig P. Alexander and his affiliated organizations: Center for American Liberty, California Policy Center, and Republican Party Central Committee.
These people paid $25 or more, but you can get all Craig's tips here.