Careful work by Maria Donovan Fitzpatrick of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research looked at student achievement in Georgia as its pre-K program phased in.

WSJ: Review & Outlook: Head Start for All

Laura is President of the Marc and Laura Andreessen Foundation, and she sits on multiple boards, including the Sand Hill Foundation, the Arrillaga Foundation, Stanford University School of Education, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and, formerly, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

FORBES: Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen on 21st Century Philanthropy and Smarter Giving

In a paper last year for the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford's John Cogan and John Taylor, with Volker Wieland and Maik Wolters of Frankfurt, Germany's Goethe University, show that a reduction in federal spending over several years amounting to 3% of GDP bringing noninterest spending down to pre-financial-crisis levels will increase short-term GDP.

WSJ: Michael Boskin: Larger Spending Cuts Would Help the Economy