Editorial: Commission on boys, men needed for interests of all

By The Herald Editorial Board

A significant segment of the population in Washington state is struggling, significantly so.

Their high school graduation rate lags 5 percentage points behind their peers; only 35 percent achieve a high school GPA of 3.0 or higher, compared to 51 percent for their peers; and they are 19 percent less likely than those peers to earn a bachelor’s degree.

They account for 70 percent of the state’s unsheltered population, 68 percent of fatal overdoses, 91 percent of the juvenile detentions, 94 percent of the prison population and serving longer sentences and suffer 79 percent of the total number of suicides, in a state where the rate of suicide deaths exceeds the national average.

That segment of the population are men and boys.

And no small portion of Washington state’s budget each year is spent addressing challenges in many of those areas where men are struggling: education, homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction, behavioral health, public safety and criminal justice.

State Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, who has served in the Legislature since 2015, sits on House committees for the capital budget and appropriations.

“I see how much money we spend on education, on housing, on criminal justice, on homelessness on the opioid problems,” Dye said. “And you look at that and you say, ‘Well, why are we not making progress, since we’re working so hard on these issues and spending so much on these issues?’”

Support grows: In finding answers to that question, Dye is bringing back legislation she proposed last year to create a Washington State Commission on Boys and Men, when state lawmakers return to Olympia, Jan. 8 for a 60-day session. Modeled on the Washington State Women’s Commission, which was created in 2018 — the commission on boys and men would look into the risk factors experienced by boys, male youths and men and use that information to inform policy and other solutions to improve outcomes in five areas: education; fatherhood and family; mental and physical health; careers, jobs and financial health; and criminal justice and the courts.

Though introduced last year with bipartisan support, Dye’s legislation, House Bill 1270, failed to advance past a committee assignment and received no hearing. This year, the bill has been joined by companion legislation in the state Senate, introduced by state Sen. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek.

The legislation also has the backing of a nationally known advocate Richard Reeves, a Brookings Institution fellow, author of “Of Boys and Men,” and founder of the American Institute for Boys and Men.

Reeves wrote last year for Brookings backing Dye’s legislation, noting Washington state wasn’t alone in its struggles and that it could create the first such state commission of its kind in the nation: “There is a growing recognition that these problems need to be taken seriously, not only for the sake of boys and men, but also for the sake of women, children, the economy, and even the health of our political life.”

Reeves is hopeful that if successful, Washington’s commission could become a model for commissions in other states.

“If Washington state proceeds to create this commission, which I hope it does, I’d be very surprised if that doesn’t act as a bit of a domino, because of the state’s political complexion that I think would make it easier for other states to follow suit,” he said in an interview earlier this week.

Men at work: An example of the policy that such a commission could influence is in education, especially in offering more opportunities and encouragement for male teens in vocational education and training in trades and in recruiting more men in careers for elementary education and behavioral health. Currently in the state men hold only 25 percent of the jobs in mental health counseling, 18 percent of elementary teaching positions and 16 percent of social work positions.

With a large number of single-parent homes, many headed by women, young boys often don’t have a male mentor in their lives, a role that can be played by male teachers, coaches, counselors and others, Dye said. One way to do that, she said, would be to offer better pay in those fields — to men and women — to make those fields a more realistic consideration as a career.

The legislation also is a major focus for the Washington Initiative for Boys and Men. Blair Daly, founder of the initiative believes the commission’s proposed areas of focus can direct where boys’ and men’s needs are greatest.

“They line up with what leaders in other states as well as at the national level are seeing for focus, through the lens of how do we make sure that we’re helping our boys and men through proactive measures and not harming them through neglect in the sense of inadequate attention and resources,” Daly said.

Another area where Daly encourages attention is in the civil and criminal justice system.

“One of the five focus areas is the experience of males in court systems,” he said. “That does account for the great number of men from whom I’ve heard gut-wrenching stories about how they are prevented from being the fathers they’d like to be because of a system that gets in the way.”

Not a zero-sum game: One struggle the effort has had, Reeves said, is in fighting the assumption that focus on the issues of men and boys could subtract effort and resources from the needs of women and girls. Reeves insists the solutions are not zero-sum. In fact, the work of a commission on boys and men would be complementary to the efforts for girls and women.

“If one of the issues that the boys and men commission proposes to look at is around fatherhood and family life, that’s obviously an area where the interests of men and women really ought to be seen as kind of two sides of the same coin,” he said. “Because helping fathers to be more engaged and involved in their children’s lives, for example, even if they don’t live with the mother, takes some of the pressure off mom, off women.”

At the same time, Reeves warns, it’s important to offer solutions, particularly to boys and young men who are searching for guidance and advice on what it means to be a man. It will be key, he said, just for boys and male youths to know someone is looking out for their interests, particularly in messages that counter what they may be seeing on social media, the internet and elsewhere.

“Problems that are not addressed by responsible people become grievances that are then weaponized by irresponsible people,” Reeves said.

Dye, with her legislation and her committee focus on state spending, is looking out for the state’s financial concerns. But the mother of three girls on a sheep ranch in Eastern Washington also sees the necessity in addressing issues that affect boys and men throughout the state, in its rural, suburban and urban communities. That means bringing focus to their needs as boys and continuing through their development into adulthood.

“How that happens is building more systems that affirm and build hope and opportunity for the men in those places where they can master their lives and become productive and prosperous and be supportive of their kids and their wives or girlfriends.”

The establishment of a state commission on boys and men isn’t an either/or proposition, ignoring the efforts still very much needed to address the inequality, lack of opportunity and aggression that girls and women face. Such a commission would be a both/and solution that will add to those efforts and address what’s lacking for complete and effective solutions for all.

“We want to make what we’re investing in work better,” Dye said. “We need everybody. We can’t let our boys slip down and slip by. If one big group isn’t happy, then none of us can be happy.”