Greg Olear talks to John B. King, Jr., former U.S. Secretary of Education and current SUNY chancellor, about what the Department of Education actually does; what proposed cuts to the D.O.E. mean for students, teachers, parents, and communities; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning; the stakes of the Trump Administration’s ongoing attacks on higher education; and his powerful and moving new memoir, “Teacher by Teacher: The People Who Save Our Lives.” John B. King Jr. served in President Barack Obama's cabinet as the tenth U.S. Secretary of Education. Over the course of his extensive and influential career in public education, he has been a high school social stud-les teacher, a middle school principal, the first African American and Puerto Rican to serve as New York State Education Commissioner, a college professor, and the president and CEO of the Education Trust, a national education civil rights organization. King is currently the chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY), the nation's largest comprehensive system of public higher education. Both of King's parents were career New York City public school educators. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, an education researcher and former teacher, and his two daughters.