By MICAH SHIELDS
On Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, a case of staggering betrayal unfolded that should shake every parent, taxpayer, and public servant to the core.
Nathaniel Erfurth, now a former Soldotna High School teacher, was convicted this year on 28 felony counts, including 24 charges of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor. His crimes were not abstract. They were specific, sustained, and committed under the nose of a system that should have stopped him long ago.
According to the police affidavit, Erfurth and the minor would meet for private conversations at a tiny house on his own property, as his wife and child were at the main residence. During the trial, his wife insisted, “He genuinely thought he was helping.” (Sara Erfurth said in testimony- as reported by KSRM, July 29, 2025).
Perhaps more telling was the response from Erfurth’s colleagues and professional community. Even after the jury’s verdict, some in his professional community rushed, not to defend the victim or to reckon with their own complicity, but to lament that the conviction might give critics of public education more “ammunition.” It was a response that sidestepped any reckoning with the victim or the system’s failures.
It’s clear that Erfurth’s actions and the community’s response didn’t emerge in a vacuum. This is a case study in what happens when institutional loyalty trumps moral responsibility, when unions perpetuate a culture of victimhood and are structured to protect their members at all costs, even at the expense of children.
Kenai teachers union elects new president after sex-scandal
At the heart of the issue lies a fundamental conflict of interest: When public sector unions represent government employees, they are negotiating directly against the interests of the public they are supposed to serve. The original purpose of unions was to protect workers from exploitation by private employers. But in government, where employees serve the public and are funded by taxpayers, the dynamic changes. The governed become, in effect, the opposing party, and are portrayed as the oppressors.
Soldotna High teacher, who is also the KPEA union president, arrested for sexual abuse of minor
By tolerating this inversion, we tacitly agree with the narrative- that our teachers and administrators are oppressed by us. In doing so, we not only weaken the authority of the governed, but we also hand over our children to be raised within a worldview where accountability is the enemy. This hypocrisy strikes at the very heart of our national identity. As Americans, we declare ourselves to be a people “of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed.” Yet by permitting unions to negotiate against the governed, we implicitly accept that the governed themselves are unjust oppressors.
This inversion of responsibility leads to a dangerous outcome: public servants, by accepting union protection, fundamentally see themselves- not as stewards of the public trust, but as victims of public scrutiny. As a result, complaints- like those reportedly first filed with local police in the Erfurth case- can be minimized, delayed, or quietly dismissed. And when the system fails, the unions often respond not by supporting reform, but by circling the wagons.
And when someone like Erfurth is convicted, it only reinforces that worldview: that even a teacher caught abusing students is too often treated as if he were a martyr, rather than held fully accountable as a predator.
This narrative isn’t accidental. It’s built into the DNA of organizations like the National Education Association. Bob Chanin, former general counsel for the NEA, made this explicit during his 2009 farewell speech, one that received a standing ovation from union leadership. He said:
“It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children, and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power, and we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year… This is not to say that the concern of NEA and its affiliates with closing achievement gaps, reducing dropout rates, improving teacher quality, and the like, are unimportant or inappropriate… But they need not and must not be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights, and collective bargaining. That simply is too high a price to pay.”
Let that sink in. Protecting union members takes priority over improving education, even over protecting children. When justice, safety, and learning collide with union power, union power wins.
In this case, Erfurth wasn’t dismissed when the first concerns arose in 2016, or again in 2017. He was promoted, later becoming president of the Kenai Peninsula Education Association, the local teachers’ union, a role documented in KPEA’s public records.
Meanwhile, parents are voting with their feet, turning to homeschooling, correspondence programs, and charter schools in record numbers. Enrollment in correspondence programs alone has jumped from about 12,500 pre-pandemic to over 22,000 students today. This exodus is not just about curriculum or test scores; it’s a response to the fact that the system has been designed to alienate parents, with unions like the NEA openly, as seen in Chanin’s speech, positioning themselves against parental authority whenever it threatens union interests.
In response to this exodus, NEA-Alaska is currently suing to block correspondence school allotments, programs that give parents more control over their children’s education. Their message is clear: “We won’t reform, and we’ll attack your alternatives.”
The solution isn’t just better training or more oversight. Nothing but addressing the underlying issue will suffice. One option is to prohibit public sector unions from operating in roles where impartiality and accountability are essential. A more targeted approach would be to empower citizens to sue unions directly when their obstruction enables harm, whether it’s emotional distress, lost educational opportunities, or delayed justice.
When a union protects a predator, it becomes complicit. And the public should not be forced to fund its own betrayal.
Alaska’s children deserve better. They deserve schools that serve them, not institutions that protect themselves. This is not a partisan issue. It is a moral one.
It’s time to put students back at the center of public education and to remind government unions that power without accountability is not public service. It’s systemic corruption.
Micah Shields is a lifelong Alaskan, avid outdoorsman, husband, and father of four.
Micah Shields should work on brevity!
Excellent article and spot on. Much of the article is so quote worthy but I am singling out this quote as it is something I also have been vocal about but too many people, especially elected officials, seem to not get.
“At the heart of the issue lies a fundamental conflict of interest: When public sector unions represent government employees, they are negotiating directly against the interests of the public they are supposed to serve.”
At very least public employee unions should not be allowed to lobby. They should be for the purpose of wage negotiation and employee issue resolution only. The NEA is not about eduction. They are about power and control and they hold far too much of that. Read the article.
Spot on!
Hear hear!
This is an excellent piece of writing. I’m cooking up an idea for an article too. I encountered some stuff this year that I believe needs to be aired: a fundamental lie that school enrollments are plummeting in ASD. I have evidence and written testimony from ASD headquarters.
Please take the next step and develop this theme!!
Our ” Public” education system has become as power hungry and entitled on the publics dollar as the Catholic church was and still is.
Instead of rooting out the rot in the priesthood the vatican swept it under the “red carpet that leads to heaven” by transferring the ones who got caught to remote villages in Alaska to capture more victims.
The people who are protecting the perps belong in the gulag with the worst offenders which in this case is the all powerful Teachers Union.
The public is forced to fund the corruption as well as pay for quality education their children deserve from private sources.
This was all I needed to know: some in his professional community rushed, not to defend the victim or to reckon with their own complicity, but to lament that the conviction might give critics of public education more “ammunition.”
The NEA and AFT are only interested in funneling more money to teachers and schools. They’re not interested in excellence in education. They’re especially not interested in protecting students from predator teachers. Shame on the NEA. Shame on the AFT. Shame on the legislature for caving in to the NEA and AFT. Shame on Alaskans for not marching to these unions’ doors with proverbial pitchforks and torches.
Thank you for writing this. You are completely correct: teacher unions are for teachers; the welfare of students and the general public is at the bottom of their list, though they will vociferously deny it.
Could not have said it better! Unions for government employees means there no incentive for transparency or excellence, much less work ethic or integrity. Even worse, when staffing decisions need to be made, “last hired, first fired” is the default instead of quality. The only thing I see the union doing is demanding more money for less and lower expectations, accountability, and professionalism. The problem is that the district often does not act in good faith. The lie, look for scapegoats, and make terrible decisions so often that good teachers often feel like they need protection from increasing layers of admin that aren’t always on the same page unless they need someone to blame for their incompetence.
Excellent article exposing the truth and the ugliness of protecting one political party regardless of offense. However, it would be best to name out the particular unions as opposed to grouping them as one seemingly cohesive group. This is not the case.
Does this same logic apply to the police unions?
The unions must realize the education system is there to educate our children. They must come first. It is not to there create wealth for unions and their members.
Doesn’t it seem shortsighted to assert that it’s a fundamental conflict of interest for public sector unions to represent government employees, because they negotiate directly against the interests of the public they’re supposed to serve ?
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The same laws protecting private-sector employee rights shouldn’t, with reasonable exceptions, be applied to government employees?
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How is it against the interests of the public they’re supposed to serve for public employee unions to exercise their right to negotiate impact and implementation of a management directive, within the provisions of their contract?
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What’s impact and implementation? Management tell them what to do, they negotiate the process of how to do it.
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And if the contract isn’t written with the best interests of the public in mind, does management –who should be running the show anyway– not have an obligation to the public to re-negotiate the contract so the public never pays for betrayal?
His Info could be way more concise- pretty sure I agree – but not a pleasure to wade thru it.