Author Profile

Jane S. Shaw

Jane S. Shaw was president of the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy until February 2015, when she retired and joined the Pope Center's board of directors. Before joining the center in 2006, she was a senior fellow of PERC, the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana.

Before moving in to higher education policy, Shaw was a frequent writer and speaker on environmental topics. With Michael Sanera she coauthored Facts, Not Fear: Teaching Children about the Environment (Regnery 1999). She coedited A Guide to Smart Growth: Shattering Myths and Providing Solutions (Heritage Foundation, 2000) with Ronald Utt. Before joining PERC in 1984, she was an associate economics editor of Business Week. Shaw has a B.A. in English literature from Wellesley College. At that time her name was Jane Steidemann.

Shaw is a past president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education, editorial adviser to Econ Journal Watch, a member of the Editorial Advisory Panel of Regulation, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Council of the Institute of Economic Affairs (London). She is married to Richard L. Stroup.

Articles by Jane S. Shaw









What’s Wrong with Business Schools?

Ever since the 2008 financial crash, American business schools have been reeling from criticism. There is a widespread feeling that the financial meltdown was caused by graduates of elite business…


What I Learned by Going Back to College

A few years ago, I went back to school. I was in my 60s and nearing retirement as president of the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. In that position I had been observing universities, faculty, administrators, and students for five or six years and I thought I knew a lot about academia. I was aware that many students are slackers, that a lot of faculty members have a leftist bias, that college costs too much, that there’s grade inflation and a lot of administrative waste and red tape. But I wanted to study again, and North Carolina State University was less than a mile away from where I lived. So far, I have taken five courses, three of them since I retired last February.