(Photo By Flickr User Mark and Allegra Jaroski-Biava)

Small and medium-sized public universities hurt by Illinois’ historic budget standoff are enduring bigger enrollment declines than similar-sized schools in nearby states.

The nonpartisan Illinois Campaign for Political Reform said in a report that was released on last week that Chicago State University’s enrollment declined by nearly 25% (the largest decrease among schools with less than 10,000 students).

The report compared The Land Of Lincoln schools with universities in Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Kentucky.

Enrollment at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale decreased by 7.5%. That was the largest enrollment decrease among universities serving between 10,000 and 20,000 students in those seven states.

The Springfield bureau of Lee Enterprises newspapers says the report emphasized that several factors besides the state budget impasse could have contributed to the declines.

(Information Courtesy Of cinewsnow.com)