DeVos Speaking at Harvard; AG Healey Seeks Audience

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is coming to Boston as part of a two-day conference on charter schools and vouchers.

DeVos will speak at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government on Thursday.

According to the Boston Globe, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and Harvard Law School's legal services are asking DeVos to spend time with students who they say will be harmed by policy changes in the "for-profit" college industry and campus sexual assault policies.

On Friday, The Trump administration scrapped Obama-era guidance on investigating campus sexual assault. This allows universities to require higher standards of evidence when handling complaints of sexual assault on campus.

DeVos said the old policy had been unfairly skewed against the accused. She also said the Education Department had become "weaponized" to "work against schools and against students."

The guidance released in 2011 and then updated in 2014 instructed universities to use a "preponderance of the evidence" standard when assessing and investigating a claim of sexual assault.

DeVos' interim guidelines let colleges choose between that standard and a “clear and convincing evidence” standard. Those rules will be in place while the Education Department seeks public comment and writes new guidance.