Boys and men in Virginia are falling behind education and workforce progress targets, a state panel said as it looks for ways address the gap between the genders.
According to a report released Thursday by the Virginia Boys and Men Advisory Commission, data show boys are falling behind in multiple educational metrics starting from an early age. The commission, after two formal study meetings in Richmond to evaluate challenges and “construct actional policy solutions,” concluded that the declines continue into adulthood, with data showing disengagement by men in the workforce.
“Proposing targeted policy interventions that help young men strengthens the Commonwealth as a whole, yielding outcomes that benefit men and women, boys and girls alike,” the report said.
The commission’s first study meeting focused on education received data and testimony from the American Institute for Boys and Men, which showed since 2024 only 48% percent of boys in the commonwealth met kindergarten readiness benchmarks compared with 56% of girls. Meanwhile, fourth grade boys’ reading scores stagnated until 2019-2022, when they saw a 13.5-point drop, a steep decline compared with a 2.4 drop nationally.
The gender disparities seen in early childhood development continue through secondary and postsecondary education, the report said. In high school, boys in Virginia drop out at a 50% higher rate than girls do and boys make up only 44% of undergraduate college students statewide. Only 39% of men between the ages of 25 to 34 hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 48% of women.
Self-regulation mechanisms, such as impulse control and managing emotion, appear earlier in girls as they grow, the report states, adding that school environments often don’t match boys’ developmental patterns. Another possible reason for the decline, the commission said, is the lack of men in the classroom, as about 19% of Virginia’s K-12 teachers overall are men but only 7% percent are elementary school teachers and fewer than 3% are early childhood educators.
“The higher education pipeline offers little immediate relief: in 2024, men received only 16.0 to 17.0% of bachelor’s degrees in education awarded by Virginia colleges and universities, down from 39.0% in 2003,” the report said.
The educational drops have some effect in the job market, the report found. Roughly a quarter of prime-age men without a high school diploma are not working, compared with 17.9% of high school graduates, 12.7% with some college education and 6.4% of bachelor’s degree holders.
“Educational attainment represents the primary structural dividing line in male labor force participation and earning power,” the report said, adding that employed men with less than a high school education can earn an annual median wage of $41,000.
Meanwhile, while most men are participating in the labor force, Virginia experienced a loss of 16,600 nonfarm jobs — the third largest job decline nationally — between July 2025 and June 2026. Male military veterans and those working in federal positions were hit the hardest, the report said. Virginia is also experiencing an imbalance in the types of jobs men and women obtain. Men overwhelmingly work in transportation and warehouse roles as well as in the agricultural and administrative spaces, whereas women dominate healthcare jobs, retail and educational roles.
“This imbalance exists despite long-term projections indicating Virginia will face a shortfall of 8,020 registered nurse full-time equivalents by 2038,” the report said.
The commission made several recommendations to help boys and men catch up their female counterparts. Legislatively, it suggested amending the law to mandate boys and girls’ school performance be tracked separately under the Virginia Literacy Act and more rigorous reporting requirements for state employment programs. Lawmakers could also prevent boys from disengaging by expanding high school and community college dual enrollment programs to provide access to vocational training as early as ninth grade, the report said.
Among the recommendations for the state budget, the commission is advocating for state funds to “establish a grant program for local school divisions to directly market teacher apprenticeship and teacher residency programs to men” as well as funding for “male educator campus networks.”
Its regulatory recommendations focus on tracking the number of men involved in the education pipeline and the number of military veterans who are teachers. The report calls on the state’s Department of Education to have results of the agency’s Student Vocation Assessments broken down by career and gender. To improve employment opportunities, the commission recommends that the Virginia Board of Workforce Development develop “male pathways” into the healthcare industry.
The commission, which is part of the Virginia General Assembly, consists of 18 members — six from the House of Delegates, four from the Senate and eight nonlegislative citizens appointed by the governor.
The full report can be found online.
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