Prairie State Wire

Shannon Adcock, founder of Awake Illinois, said on X that students are leaving Illinois for out-of-state colleges amid declining enrollment, attributing the trend to Governor JB Pritzker's mandates and lockdowns.

"Illinois families are seeing their kids graduate high school and flee to southern/southeastern states and colleges," said Shannon M Adcock. "Who could blame them? Illinois college enrollment is plummeting. These kids haven't forgotten what Gov. Pritzker did to them with harmful mandates & lockdowns."

Illinois has been facing ongoing challenges in higher education enrollment and student outmigration. According to the Illinois Board of Higher Education, in 2021, while overall college enrollment saw a slight rebound from the pandemic, Latino, African American, and white students remained below pre-2020 levels. Nearly half of Illinois high school graduates (47.6%) attending four-year colleges chose to leave the state, matching a historic high first seen in 2017.

Between 2019 and 2021, initial college enrollment among Illinois public high school graduates declined from 63.8% to 58.3%, with a minor recovery to 59.1% in 2021. The board noted that the steepest drops were at two-year community colleges, while four-year enrollment was more stable. These shifts reflect both demographic and pandemic-related pressures on students.

Illinois leads Midwestern states in student outmigration, with 47.7% of its 2017 high school graduates opting for out-of-state four-year colleges, followed by 46.8% in 2019 and 47.6% in 2021. The board reported that Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Michigan, and Ohio account for most of these destinations, highlighting a persistent regional enrollment drain.

Adcock is an Illinois native who graduated from the University of Illinois in 2002 as the first woman in her family to earn a degree. According to Awake Illinois, she entered civic advocacy through PTA service and fundraising before gaining prominence during the 2020 school reopening debates and even running for a local school board position. Her work focuses on parental rights, education policy, and civic empowerment.

Awake Illinois is a Naperville-based nonprofit advocacy group founded by Adcock to promote parental rights, equality in education, and civic engagement. According to Awake Illinois, the organization grew out of activism during COVID-19 school closures and has since expanded into school board engagement, advocacy campaigns, and public events. Its said mission is to defend constitutional rights and educational transparency.