Hey, Illinois elected officials: Pay attention to this student outmigration - CRAIN'S EDITORIAL BOARD

Illinois stands on the cusp of making some draconian choices. The Civic Federation, a reliably straight-thinking government watchdog group, in February called on Springfield to create a bipartisan commission to rationalize the state's higher education system. The federation noted that six of the state's 12 university campuses have posted enrollment drops since 2008, with only two up since 2015: The U of I campuses in Urbana and Chicago. With the population of high school students also dropping, the federation says, "The commission should consider the elimination of duplicative higher education programs, reallocation of resources across programs and campuses and the closure or consolidation of campuses." Particularly weak have been Northeastern, Southern, Western and Eastern Illinois universities and Chicago State University. https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20180309/ISSUE07/180309862/illinois-universities-suffer-from-budget-impasse