MEDFORD, Ore. – The first teachers’ strike in Oregon’s Medford School District has officially begun.

Members of the Medford Education Association – the local teachers union – walked off the job on Thursday, disrupting the learning process for their 13,000 students and causing work and daycare headaches for thousands of parents, according to RegisterGuard.com.

Barring some last-minute contract breakthrough with the union this weekend, Medford district leaders say schools will remain closed through Monday, as they scramble to hire replacement teachers. Even then, leaders say students will be given shorter school days, perhaps until the strike ends, RegisterGuard.com reports.

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Medford Education Association (MEA) members chose to strike because they’re unhappy with the terms of the district’s recently imposed contract, which includes a cap on health insurance contributions and inadequate amounts of teacher prep time, MailTribune.com reports.

State law allows the district the right to impose its final offer on the union after certain negotiating milestones have been reached.

One of the major sticking points appears to be the district’s revamped early retirement plan, which – beginning March 31 – will “no longer pay for health insurance for up to eight years for employees retiring early,” according to MailTribune.com.

Medford Superintendent Phil Long says district officials have been warning the union since 2006 that they can no longer afford this generous benefit, but the two sides haven’t been able to agree on a way to fix the problem.

The district’s decision to end the benefit has MEA President Cheryl Lashley especially incensed.

“I have three years to go (before retirement),” Lashley told MailTribune.com. “There is no way in hell that I will be able to save up enough to retire by then. Instead of shoving teachers off a cliff, we want to have some time, dignity and respect given to them.”

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Let’s see if we have this straight: Because the district is no longer going to subsidize Medford teachers who decide to retire at age 57, the MEA is willing to disrupt their students’ education and turn parents’  lives upside down? And MEA members think this is the way to acquire “dignity and respect”?

We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Labor unions and public schools don’t mix. If these self-centered adults don’t like the conditions of their employment, they should be adult enough to simply resign and find something better in the private sector.

And to that most Americans would probably say, “Good luck!”