diff --git a/sky/backends/backend_utils.py b/sky/backends/backend_utils.py
index 70380e12d37..b1598c7c039 100644
--- a/sky/backends/backend_utils.py
+++ b/sky/backends/backend_utils.py
@@ -867,13 +867,6 @@ def write_cluster_config(
     if to_provision.labels:
         labels.update(to_provision.labels)
 
-    # Prepare labels to be dumped into the yaml file - add quotes to the values
-    # to enforce str type for label values. Unquoted strings may get parsed as
-    # bool by yaml.safe_load (E.g., 'True' without quotes gets parsed as bool),
-    # which may cause issues with downstream code (e.g., Kubernetes python API
-    # does not accept bool values for labels).
-    labels = {k: f'\'{v}\'' for k, v in labels.items()}
-
     # Dump the Ray ports to a file for Ray job submission
     dump_port_command = (
         f'{constants.SKY_PYTHON_CMD} -c \'import json, os; json.dump({constants.SKY_REMOTE_RAY_PORT_DICT_STR}, '
diff --git a/sky/templates/kubernetes-ray.yml.j2 b/sky/templates/kubernetes-ray.yml.j2
index 7078a6ca787..a9c1a2fdfb3 100644
--- a/sky/templates/kubernetes-ray.yml.j2
+++ b/sky/templates/kubernetes-ray.yml.j2
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ available_node_types:
             skypilot-user: {{ user }}
             # Custom tags for the pods
             {%- for label_key, label_value in labels.items() %}
-            {{ label_key }}: {{ label_value }}
+            {{ label_key }}: {{ label_value|tojson }}
             {%- endfor %}
         {% if k8s_fuse_device_required %}
         annotations: