Letting Others Lead: When Delaware Senate President Pro Tem Dave Sokola recognizes that others might have something to offer, he gives them a chance to shine.

• Author: Householder, Stacy
• Position: LEADER PROFILE

Dave Sokola has served more than 30 years in the Delaware Senate and just over one year as president pro tempore. A Democrat and former teacher who sits on the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council--a panel of state officials and economists who study the state's fiscal outlook--Sokola's passions include education, the environment and, recently, beekeeping. NCSL caught up with him to talk about the challenges facing his state.

What are the main opportunities and challenges ahead for Delaware?

Delaware is a coastal state, so climate change is something that is getting quite a bit more focus, recognizing that what we do right now might not benefit us a whole lot unless other people around the world take similar actions.

For not quite as long term, I think fiscal. I serve on Delaware's Financial Advisory Council, and we do the revenue estimates for the state. My challenge is to try to see if we can get more fiscal stability moving forward. We have 25 line items of revenue. Some of them are big and some of them are very volatile. So, we're trying to do things to mitigate volatility. One is that we recently established a reserve fund. I think the reserve fund gives us a lot more flexibility.

How do you aspire to strengthen Delaware during your tenure as leader? And what's your advice for new legislators?

I had the privilege of serving on an NCSL study group that presented the report "No Time to Lose: How to Build a World-Class Education System State by State" in 2015, and I'm pressing for greater enactment of the recommendations here in Delaware. I still have copies, and every time a new person gets elected, I give them one. They look at it and they're like, "Why haven't we already done this?" But we're going to get it done.

A very high percentage of people, when they run for office, run with education as at least one of their top three issues. And I've found that so many of them are appreciative when I share that document with them. I think especially with language learners, people from poverty, people with other special education needs, we can do better in Delaware, and we are taking steps. Some would argue they're baby steps. But I'm at least cautiously optimistic that we're going to get where we need to be.

You come from a teaching background. What lessons from your past influenced how you lead the Senate today?

There are kind of two models that are sometimes referred to, one where teaching is kind of siloed off and the other where...