Education Secretary Betsy DeVos's appearance on 60 Minutes Sunday was widely panned, with special scrutiny for her one foray into higher education policy, in which DeVos said she didn't know which was greater -- the number of false accusations of sexual assault on campus or the number of campus rapes.
It’s an answer that the Education Department has walked back now in response to questions from Inside Higher Ed. A department spokeswoman, Liz Hill, said Tuesday that DeVos agrees that false reports are a fraction of the overall complaints.
A reporter asked if DeVos does not believe that that false reports are rare compared to actual rapes or assaults. Hill said DeVos "doesn't believe that," which was unclear in her 60 Minutes segment. Asked to clarify whether DeVos "agrees or disagrees" with the statement that false reports are a small percentage of complaints, Hill said, "Agree."
Research shows that untrue allegations are indeed a small percentage of reported college sexual assaults.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/03/14/education-department-devos-says-false-reports-sexual-assault-are-rare