Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly introduced two bills last week aiming to recruit more men into schools and community programs, citing a drop in the number of male educators across the country.
The proposed legislation includes the Educators for America Act and the Building Community in America Act. Both measures seek to expand pathways for people to work as teachers, mentors, and community volunteers, with a specific emphasis on increasing male participation.
Kelly discussed the legislation during an interview with Heidi Renpenning of Univision Arizona, where he highlighted a decline in male teachers over recent decades.
“When I was in school, when I was younger, growing up in New Jersey, there were a lot more male teachers, men, in the classroom—35%,” Kelly said. “Today, that number is 23%. I had teachers that were men that were good role models, and a lot of young boys and young men don’t have that anymore.”
Kelly noted that many young men face isolation and a lack of support in their everyday lives.
“A lot of young men are struggling. They’re often isolated. They don’t have role models,” Kelly said. “I was talking to a young Black man today, and he said that of the friends that he had—young men in his school when he was growing up—it was only him and another one that had their father in their lives. That’s challenging for a lot of the young men across our country.”
According to Kelly, the legislation aims to give young men reliable guidance by placing more male figures in educational and mentorship roles.
“It’s to provide stability and to provide direction and to provide people that young men can look up to,” Kelly said. “When a mentor or a father figure leaves a young man’s life, they are more likely to become incarcerated as they are to graduate from college. It’s a drastic change in their lives, and you can improve a young man’s life by them having somebody that they can talk to who’s also a man. So that’s what the intention of this legislation is.”
Kelly pointed to broader social trends affecting young men as the primary reason for introducing the bills now.
“It’s just the statistics and how young men are falling behind in society,” Kelly said. “They can’t find direction. They’re often isolated. They spend too much time on their phones and playing video games and not getting jobs, don’t wind up in healthy relationships where they can build a family. It’s becoming a crisis in our country. So, we’re trying to intercept this and get ahead of it. We’re certainly not ahead of it. We’re trying to catch up. We’re trying to do something positive… it’s important for all of us.”
The interview followed a community roundtable hosted by Kelly last week at Sandra Day O’Connor High School in Phoenix. The event brought together local teachers, coaches, mentors, and community leaders to talk about expanding volunteer opportunities for men. Following the discussion, participants assembled back-to-school supply packages for teachers across Arizona.
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