Figures from the Illinois State Board of Education show 46 percent of high school graduates in 2016 who enrolled in a four-year university went out of state. That’s compared with 29 percent in 2002.

A pair of republican lawmakers are proposing a bill that calls for a comprehensive overhaul of higher education.

Al Bowman, the executive director of the state board and a former president of Illinois State University, says the state “has had a history of out-migration for many, many years.”