New census data and other figures reveal the cold hard truth: More people are moving away than coming, tipping Illinois last year into the dreadful category of states with declining populations. From July 2013 to July 2014, Illinois shrank by about 10,000 residents in all, joining other states in decline such as West Virginia, Connecticut and Alaska.<\/p>\n
. . .<\/p>\n
\u2022Illinois suffered a net loss of 94,956 people in state-to-state migration last year, the highest rate in decades. That number is one part of an equation involving births, deaths and immigration from other countries that yields the overall population loss. But Illinois\u2019 state-to-state migration loss is the biggest contributor to that overall population decline, Frey says. The last year Illinois had lost population was 1987-88.<\/p>\n
\u2022Three moving companies that look at migration patterns all note the high number of Illinois expats in new reports. Each company puts Illinois in the top three states for outbound shipments; Allied Van Lines ranks Illinois No. 1 with 1,372 net outbound moves. While these are limited figures reflecting the movement of entire households, demographers take them seriously as a snapshot of behavior by more affluent Americans.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And\u2013<\/p>\n
and this is where I really have to get out of my bad habit of meandering into the actual topic \u2014<\/p>\n
here\u2019s some anecdotal evidence:<\/p>\n
Growing up in Michigan, which has been beset by auto industry troubles for many years now, it was virtually unheard-of to attend college out-of-state. \u00a0Even the best-and-brightest attended the flagship University of Michigan,\u00a0or, alternatively, Michigan State, if the draw was a particular program of study (the James Madison public policy program for me, engineering for a friend); it seems to me that only one of the honors kids went to an Ivy, not because we weren\u2019t good enough, but because no one considered it necessary. \u00a0My other friends attended the lesser-name state schools \u2014 Western Michigan, Northern Michigan, etc.<\/p>\n
(Now, to be sure, few of us still live in Michigan, but that\u2019s another story.)<\/p>\n
Last night I was at the high school band concert, and, in the program, they have pictures and profiles for all the students. \u00a0Here\u2019s where they\u2019re headed:<\/p>\n
Amanda A.: \u00a0BYU Hawaii, teaching major<\/p>\n
Cullen B.: \u00a0University of Iowa, computer science major<\/p>\n
Devante C.: \u00a0local community college<\/p>\n
Emma C.: \u00a0U of Michigan or U of Wisconsin, medical field<\/p>\n
Jake F.: \u00a0college not stated<\/p>\n
Zoe F.: \u00a0Truman State University in Missouri, pre-med<\/p>\n
Eliana G.: \u00a0local community college<\/p>\n
Rachel H: \u00a0Ball State University<\/p>\n
Jennifer H.: \u00a0local community college + transfer, English<\/p>\n
Zoey K.: \u00a0University of Wisconsin Platteville, forensic chemistry<\/p>\n
Neil K.: \u00a0Indiana University, piano performance<\/p>\n
Zachary K.: \u00a0Illinois Wesleyan Univeristy, pre-med<\/p>\n
Tony R.: \u00a0Elmhurst College, music<\/p>\n
Ella S.: \u00a0University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, English<\/p>\n
Ben S.: \u00a0University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, computer engineering<\/p>\n
Dino S.: \u00a0community college + transfer, computer science<\/p>\n
Nora S.: \u00a0University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, sound design<\/p>\n
Daniele S.: \u00a0St. Catherine University, Minnesota, Occupational Therapy<\/p>\n
Ryan S.: \u00a0University of Iowa, marketing<\/p>\n
Jack S.: \u00a0University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, engineering<\/p>\n
Peter T.: \u00a0University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, mechanical engineering<\/p>\n
Evan T.: \u00a0local community college + transfer to University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, music education<\/p>\n
Trevor T.: \u00a0Northern Illinois University, mechanical engineering<\/p>\n
Joey U.: \u00a0University of Minnesota, \u201cEcology, Evolution, and Behavior\u201d major (yeah, I don\u2019t know what that is, either)<\/p>\n
Nathan W.: \u00a0University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, computer science<\/p>\n
So there you have it:<\/p>\n
4 attending the community college,<\/p>\n
4 attending private colleges (half in-, half out-of-state),<\/p>\n
9 attending public colleges out of state (many in the Midwest, e.g., Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota),<\/p>\n
5 attending the University of Illinois,<\/p>\n
and one lonely hash mark in my \u201cother public university in Illinois\u201d column as I tallied this.<\/p>\n
In total, 12 staying in-state, and 11 leaving the state, and, of those attending public 4-year schols, 6 in- and 9 out-of state.<\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019s just this group of kids. \u00a0Or maybe it\u2019s just how college works these days, that financial aid shenanigans means that out-of-state tuition isn\u2019t a barrier any longer. \u00a0Perhaps it\u2019s always been this way, and the majority of the kids at the lower-tier state schools come from less-well-off places. \u00a0Or \u2014 and I don\u2019t really know \u2014 maybe it\u2019s Ilinois\u2019 system of state schools: \u00a0one school with a very strong reputation, with Springfield\u2019s efforts focused there, and the remaining schools with a cr** reputation and academic environment? \u00a0But in any case, I was surprised at this.<\/p>\n
Now, are these kids really voting with their feet with respect to Illinois\u2019 current fiscal problems? \u00a0No, of course not. \u00a0But will they come back to Illinois after graduation?<\/p>\n
And who, by the way, are the kids filling up the Illinois state universities? \u00a0According to the Chicago Tribune\u2019s reporting<\/a>, it\u2019s not necessarily that they\u2019re taking in more out-of-state kids, but that they\u2019re heavily recruiting from abroad.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A couple days ago, I again griped that Illinois seems both unable and unwilling to fix its problems. Just look at a sentence like that, with \u201cIllinois\u201d as the subject, the actor, as if those who live in Illinois are not in charge of their own fate. \u00a0And, true, this past year, the people of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":1938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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