NASHVILLE — A bicycle helmet bill rolled through the state Senate Monday with an amendment that ditches all talk of students and helmets and instead bars Tennessee school systems from deducting dues for the Tennessee Education Association from teachers’ paychecks.
Senators approved the bill, sponsored by Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, on a 21-9 vote.
“All this does is put everyone on an equal playing field,” Gardenhire told colleagues, never mentioning the TEA, the state’s largest teachers’ union.
Gardenhire’s Fair Access to Collection of Teacher Support Act would bar employee dues checkoffs by local school systems “for a professional employee organization, if any of that organization’s funds are contributed in any way to another organization that engages in political activity.”
The TEA, which represents thousands of K-12 educators, has operated a political action committee for decades. The automatic checkoff for the TEA dues are voluntary for the union’s members.