from WNYC Studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Wednesday, June 4th.

With us now, the Sunni Chancellor, John B. King. He has previously been the U.S. Education Secretary under President

Obama and has a lot to say about the Trump plan to abolish the Education Department,

like that this isn't just about reshuffling the federal bureaucracy. It'll hurt real families

with students from preschool through college. He'll explain why he thinks so.

Chancellor King has also been the New York

State Education Commissioner under Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Chancellor King has a new book called

Teacher by Teacher, the people who change our lives. It's a memoir and tribute to teachers and

teaching, mentors and mentoring, especially for those with problems at home.

He also had a New York Times op-ed last week that ties the book to the news called

the Trump administration is trying to unravel one of our greatest national accomplishments.

Chancellor King, as an Albany alum who cares about the SUNY system, welcome back to WNYC and congratulations on the book.

Thanks so much. I'm excited to talk with you. Starting with the op-ed, what are you referring to as,

quote, one of our greatest national accomplishments? Well, it's really that we as a country have

had a longstanding commitment to expanding the circle of opportunity through education.

You think about President Lincoln and the Moral Act,

dedicating land and resources to the creation of our public higher education system in this country.

You think about Brown versus Board of Education and expanding access to opportunity by dismantling segregation.

These are important steps, and that tradition is part of who we are as Americans,

and it's painful to see the administration walking away from

the idea that education is a national imperative. Yeah, the principle there, as we're entering

this country's 250th anniversary year, right? And as you put it in the op-ed, that from our earliest

...