Coley

State Rep. Jim Coley considers himself an independent thinker in the General Assembly. He definitely doesn’t vote down the Republican Party line.

“I think there’s a place in politics for moderation or moderates, because at one time it was a classical virtue and a Christian virtue,” Coley says.

Still, the Bartlett Republican and retired Shelby County Schools teacher says he is “pretty conservative.”

For instance, he voted in favor of a measure to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage, saying he did what he thought was right and what his district wanted. He points out Bellevue Baptist Church, with 15,000 to 20,000 members, is in his House District 97.

“I think it’s the natural propensity of human beings to be attracted to the opposite sex,” says Coley, who is married with two adult children.

“There may be a continuum where people may be predisposed to being gay and someone gets more estrogen than another person. I think the scientific evidence is still up in the air over that.”

As far as the court’s ruling, which overturned Tennessee’s definition of marriage as an act between a man and woman, Coley contends he’s concerned it could open the door to polygamy under the Fourteenth Amendment and First Amendment religious freedom clause. He calls it a “distressing” development.

Coley says he doesn’t think House Republicans dragged their feet on taking action with now-former House Whip Rep. Jeremy Durham. The Franklin legislator faced criticism early this session over possible prescription fraud and for writing a character letter for a former youth pastor guilty of child porn possession and statutory rape.

Then, three women working in the Legislature made anonymous claims of sexual harassment in the media. House Speaker Beth Harwell appointed a committee to investigate Durham’s case.

And even though some Democrats wonder whether the committee will produce anything concrete, Coley says, “I think they need to make sure he gets some due process, that he gets a fair hearing about allegations against him.”

Teacher viewpoint

In his 10th year in the House of Representatives, Coley spent the last decade teaching government, sociology and economics the first semester of the school year, then traveling to the Capitol during the winter.

Shelby County Schools allows employees to serve in office, so he feels he “kind of lucked out” in that regard.

After retiring from Bolton High School in northeast Shelby County last year, the 65-year-old native Texan who earned degrees at the University of Memphis doesn’t have to worry about returning to the classroom anymore.

Yet working with students for some 40 years gives him a perspective many other Republicans in the General Assembly don’t share – especially when it comes to education issues.

For instance, he says the way the Legislature treated teachers was poorly handled five years ago when it started targeting teacher evaluations, testing and even Tennessee Education Association matters.

“We needed probably a new evaluation process,” Coley says. “I don’t know that we needed as much as they’re evaluating, because it’s created a bureaucracy that’s engaged principals in spending an inordinate amount of time dealing with paperwork and trying to assess.

“And it’s created a lot of anxiety, and I think at the beginning of the process it was very heavy-handed.”

The Department of Education was unclear, as well, at that time about how teachers were to be rated on a scale of 1-5, based in part on the progress students made on tests.

Like other teachers, he points out math and language arts teachers and any teacher responsible for end-of-course exit exams are “held to a higher standard.”

Coley, for example, adds he didn’t have to give an exit exam in his course, so part of his evaluation was based on his school’s value-added scores, those used to determine how much progress students are making. He says he received good classroom evaluations but wasn’t sure how test scores affected him overall.

The number of standardized tests students take from kindergarten through 12th grade is astronomical, too, he notes, adding little to the educational experience.

“It doesn’t teach divergent thinking in the sense divergent meaning you’re creative and you have open-ended questions and things like that instead of things that come from a textbook,” he explains.

Dogging vouchers

A limited voucher bill designed to give low-income children in struggling schools public funds to attend private schools failed in the House again this session.

Its sponsor, Republican Rep. Bill Dunn of Knoxville, declined to bring it to a vote because he didn’t have enough support, even though Gov. Bill Haslam backs the measure.

Coley was among the Republicans opposing it.

“Too much reform going on,” he says. “I taught in an inner-city school for 10 years, and I think one of the things inner-city kids needs is not reform but form.

“They need structure and they need continuity on a day-to-day basis. And I feel many of the reforms are driving long-term teachers out of the profession.”

A member of the House Education Administration and Planning Committee, Coley says he tried to get answers from the Department of Education about why teachers are retiring early, a problem he’s seen at Bolton High, but never received a “good answer.”

As for the voucher proposal, Coley calls it “just another dog-and-pony show.”

Legislative agenda

Coley’s interest in helping young people bleeds over into the bills he sponsors.

He passed legislation allowing students to use their Hope Scholarship funds in the summer so they can graduate early. He also worked on measures dealing with human trafficking, moving Tennessee from the middle ranks of the nation in human trafficking laws to having one of the most comprehensive sets of human trafficking laws in the country.

In addition, as chairman of the House Civil Justice Subcommittee, he worked with Department of Safety and Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons to enhance penalties for domestic violence.

Democratic state Sen. Lee Harris, another member of the Shelby County delegation, points out Coley has done a good job of “balancing” issues in the General Assembly, including legislation to increase and decrease criminal penalties, which is an initiative the Black Caucus continues to push this year.

“He doesn’t strike me as someone who’s ideologically driven because he’s got a background and a unique perspective being a public employee,” Harris says.

“I think that helps in a way that makes him more effective rather than a rank-and-file ideologue.”

This session, among other measures, Coley is sponsoring a bill to increase the penalty for the offense of sexual contact by an authority figure from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class E felony with a mandatory minimum fine of $1,000 if the victim is under 13.

“I think children are vulnerable and they’re susceptible to what adults will tell them is important and what’s not important,” Coley explains.

“I have two children – they’re adults now – and I certainly wouldn’t want anybody engaged in luring my children or messing with my children or trying to introduce them to compromising their innocence for their own sexual pleasure.”

Coley recalls instances at Bolton High where teachers were fired for engaging in sexual relations with students, in addition to a situation at Hamilton High where a young teacher was released for the same offense, went to Mississippi and did the same thing.

He was charged with a crime there and should have been charged in Tennessee, but it was “overlooked,” Coley adds.

“I think that innocence needs to be protected until they can be more thoughtful and make prudent decisions about their relationships with other people,” he says.

Political outlook

Coley says he enjoys his public service in the General Assembly, adding he likes his colleagues, calling them a “good group to work with” and describes his experience “a real honor.”

He points out only about 5,000 people in the state’s history have gained a seat on Capitol Hill.

He doesn’t consider himself a lifer in the Legislature, though, and he says he’d only like to serve maybe a couple more terms.

True to his independent voice, Coley thinks the Legislature could change the way it operates, mainly by taking its time.

Rather than recessing in late May or early June, as was the practice for years, the Legislature got out in April last year and is projected to finish by early April this year.

However, Coley believes handling complicated legislation requires a more thoughtful process.

“I feel like there’s a lot of pressure to get through the session and the emphasis is obviously to save money for the Tennessee General Assembly.

“I know the speaker indicated we saved almost a half million dollars last year by adjourning when we did,” Coley says.

“But I think we need to slow the train down a little bit and not feel as compelled to rush through a lot of legislation.”

Spoken like a true independent.

Sam Stockard can be reached at [email protected].