Maria Fitzpatrick is a Searle Freedom Trust Postdoctoral Scholar at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.   She received her BA in economics from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and her MA and PhD degrees from the University of Virginia. Her research interests center on the economics of education, particularly early childhood education.  Her latest publication, “Starting School at Four: The Effects of University Pre-Kindergarten on Children’s Academic Achievement,” was published in the Journal of Economic Policy and Analysis in 2008.