There’s one element of the debate over education in America’s public schools that doesn’t draw nearly as much attention as the more socially provocative issues such as gay rights, racial disparities, or transgenderism. One new study from the Associated Press reveals that regardless of other demographic factors, girls graduate from high school at a significantly higher rate than boys. Male students are measurably more likely to drop out before reaching graduation and earning a diploma than their female counterparts. What explains this? The short answer is… “It’s complicated.” Or at least these professional analysts seem to believe so. But perhaps it’s really not.

They attend the same classes with access to the same programs, and even come from the same families. But girls consistently are outperforming boys, graduating at higher rates at public high schools around the country.

The gap between them is wide, often as wide as the achievement gap between students from affluent and low-income families, a problem that officials have tracked closely for years. But the reasons why boys are falling short are not as clear.

Interviews with students, educators and researchers point to several factors.

The first thing to note here is that the gap in question is significant, but it’s also not exactly “huge.” Since 2018, statistics show that 88% of girls graduated high school “on time” (or without failing a grade and in the expected year) while 82% of boys did the same. It’s a six percent difference and some percentage of the boys graduated after being held back a year. There was no chance that the results would be randomly even at 50-50, so there would always be some difference. But the gap is measurable and has held in the same direction for at least a decade, so it’s worth looking at.

So how do we explain it? The AP’s analysis starts with what they conclude are cultural differences based on gender disparity. They find that boys without high school diplomas are statistically more likely to be able to find working-class jobs that pay roughly the same as entry level jobs for women with up to one year of college. Perhaps that’s true, but the initial income differences are minor.

The real gaps show up later in life, where males without a high school diploma max out at significantly lower average incomes than women with college degrees. (Men with college degrees still earn more than women on average, which can be a subject for a separate examination.) The choice of profession for the men is also a huge factor. Males going into more skilled trades such as plumbing or heating and air conditioning can make admirable incomes compared to those in agriculture or sanitation work.

But once again, none of this addresses the root causes. While working on this article, I asked my wife why she thought there would be such a difference. Her brief answer was, “because girls are smarter. Duh.”

There may be something to that in my experience. There could even be some sort of evolutionary root to the idea, though I’m not an expert in that field. Males had to hunt and fight off competition during the years when females were raising the next generation. They probably needed more brains than brawn, perhaps? It’s hard to say.

But in the current era, we’re told to expect “equality for all.” Women should be just as able to be soldiers as men and men should be able to be caregivers for children as well as women. But is that really true? We have two genders, despite what all of the transgender activists try to tell us. There are differences, most of them wonderful, making our gender diversity something to celebrate and essential to our fundamental nature. Perhaps that carries over to how our education and career paths evolve. I leave the readers to judge for themselves.