BANGOR (AP) – Maine women are getting the message about the value of higher education, but their male counterparts seem far less inclined to pursue a college degree.

The University of Maine System, which enrolls 74 percent of the state’s public higher education students, has 21,480 women compared with 12,773 men. For the past 10 years at least, enrollment for women has exceeded that of men at all seven campuses.

The imbalance is highlighted in a 2003 report indicating that there were 154 women in college in Maine for each 100 men.

The report, by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, found that Maine’s rate was the lowest in the nation, just below Delaware which had 151 women per 100 men. Utah had 100 men for every 98 women, the highest rate of college-going males to females.

Maine educators recently have begun to pay serious attention to the fact that the number of men going on to college has not increased at the same pace as women.

UMS Chancellor Joseph Westphal referred to the problem of men’s underenrollment during his State of the University address in February and said in a recent interview that he indeed was concerned.

“If Maine is going to have a vibrant and educated work force, we need more men engaging in education,” Westphal said.

Women also have made gains at the community college level.

Ten years ago, the former technical colleges enrolled 65 percent men because of the emphasis on technical careers. Since the addition of health care and education programs as well as liberal studies, enrollment has shifted to 51 percent female, according to Maine Community College System President John Fitzsimmons. Some of the traditionally male-dominated programs also are attracting more women, he said.

Educators say some boys get turned off to education long before college. Elementary and high schools aren’t geared to boys’ active, exuberant learning styles, requiring them instead to sit still and be quiet for long periods. Boys often tune out because they don’t see the relevance in their learning, say some educators. Also, because so many teachers are women, boys have few role models in school, some say.

Once they graduate, many boys decide not to continue with the schooling that failed to engage them in the first place. Attracted by a quick paycheck, they take jobs at factories and mills.

Some don’t make it as far as graduation. Of the 1,740 Maine students who dropped out of high school in 2003, 1,008 were male and 732 were female.

Boys figure, “If I’m not liking school right now and college is more of the same, why should I put myself through that?” said Shelley Reed of the state Department of Education.

According to surveys by the University of Maine’s National Center for Student Aspirations and the George J. Mitchell Research Institute in Portland, more females expressed higher college aspirations than males and said that they needed to go to college to get a good job and that doing well in high school was important to their future.

“I worry about our young boys,” said J. Duke Albanese, policy adviser with the Mitchell Institute and former state education commissioner. “We’re seeing a lot of young males hanging around communities after graduation, not having much direction, falling behind in terms of opportunities in their lives.”

Some young men are getting the message – even if it’s the hard way.

After graduating from Penquis Valley High School in 1996, Jeremy Carey of Milo spent a couple of years “job jumping” – working as a line cook at various restaurants, then bagging wood shavings and stacking lumber at a sawmill.

“It was backbreaking work. Doing manual labor for eight bucks an hour wasn’t for me,” said Carey, who ultimately decided to enroll in the nursing program at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor.

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com