BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Instructors at Bellingham Technical College walked off the job this week, and a district court judge said he won’t force them back to work.

College officials asked Whatcom County District Court Judge Fred Heydrich to order faculty back to work after they walked out on students Tuesday in protest over salary and workload. But Heydrich denied the request because “he feels the college and the union are well equipped to continue negotiating toward a solution,” King5.com reports.

The college canceled classes until further notice.

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Bellingham’s 8,000 students should demand a refund. If the college isn’t fulfilling its agreement to provide a quality education in the agreed upon time frame, students should  be free to take their money to a school that can meet that obligation.

The college may eventually resume classes, and could even complete the current semester late, but students shouldn’t have to wait until after the strike for the college to get its act together.

Of course, refund demands could mean the faculty union’s childish behavior could come full circle to bite it in the backside. After student refunds, we suspect the college would have little money left to meet the union’s selfish contract demands.

Perhaps that’s what it will take for unions like the Bellingham Education Association, that put labor interests ahead of students each year, to realize there’s much more to education than bonuses and benefits.

Perhaps with zero funding from students, BEA members and college officials would finally take a hard look at their priorities, and pull their heads out of … the sand.