Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee signed a new bill into law Thursday that allows teachers in the Volunteer State to be free from mandatory union dues and increases pay for teachers.

The law, known as the Teacher Paycheck Protection Act, stipulates that minimum teacher pay will be $50,000 a year by 2026 and that teachers unions cannot automatically deduct money from those paychecks. Teachers unions across the state have been criticized over political activism and lawmakers in the state have tried for years to remove the mandatory union fees.

“We’re also making sure that teachers actually receive their well-deserved raises and that union membership dues are never automatically deducted from teacher paychecks. Teachers should have control over their hard-earned paycheck and taxpayer dollars should be used to educate students and not fund politics,” Lee said in a video first obtained by The Daily Wire.

Poster Comment:

My church gives substantial donations every year to teachers in our congregation to help them buy school supplies for students. They are poorly paid. $50,000 a year is a lot of money around here though all that legal and illegal immigration has raised rents here a lot.