March 20, 2025 - PBS News Hour full episode

President Trump made good on a pledge by signing an order to dismantle the Department of Education. The department has been a target since it was created more than four decades ago. But President Trump and other Republicans want to go all the way this time, calling the department wasteful and arguing it fails too many students. Geoff Bennett reports.

To help understand the implications of President Trump’s order to dismantle the Education Department, Geoff Bennett has perspectives from Rick Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and Catherine Lhamon, a former assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education under both the Obama and Biden administrations.

The Trump administration’s standoff with the judiciary continues as some of the president's top allies and advisers are ramping up their criticism of federal judges. The Justice Department again refused to provide a federal judge detailed information about deportation flights carrying hundreds of Venezuelan migrants. White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López reports.

In our news wrap Thursday, Hamas fired rockets at Israel for the first time since the resumption of fighting this week, Israel restarted its blockade on northern Gaza, an American detained by the Taliban for more than two years has been freed and officials from across Europe are moving to form an international peacekeeping force as Russia and Ukraine work out the details of a partial ceasefire.

While Republicans currently control both chambers of Congress, they’ve been losing control of their events back home. Lisa Desjardins attended one of the only town halls held by a Republican member during this congressional recess, catching up with him and the constituents seeking to give him an earful.

Egg prices have soared to new records over the last couple of months. The wholesale price for a dozen white eggs climbed to over $8 in February. Since then, that price has dropped but the prices consumers pay at the grocery store are still high. Economics correspondent Paul Solman takes a look at what has been going on.

The Houthis are labeled by the U.S. as a terrorist organization supported by Iran. President Trump has once again demanded Iran cease its support and wrote the Houthis “will be completely annihilated.” Nick Schifrin spoke with a top Houthi official and reports on how the Trump administration hopes its new campaign of airstrikes will succeed where previous campaigns failed.

We continue our look back at the COVID-19 pandemic, five years after the virus began spreading in the United States. Our latest reflection is from someone who spent much of his life working at his family's restaurant, only to have to shut it down when COVID hit.

Artist Hugh Hayden transforms everyday objects, from schoolhouse desks to basketball hoops to cast-iron cookware, into something surreal. An exhibition at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University challenges our perception of the American dream through Hayden’s uncanny yet familiar work. Special correspondent Jared Bowen of GBH Boston reports for our arts and culture series, CANVAS.