Iowa's Sara Eide Named 'Advocate of the Year' by National Education Reform Group

WASHINGTON, May 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Iowa Alliance for Choice in Education Co-Founder Sara Eide has been recognized as the 2007 Advocate of the Year by the national nonprofit Alliance for School Choice.

Eide has led successful public outreach efforts that resulted in the passage and expansion of Iowa's Individual School Tuition Tax Credit Program which allows taxpayers to receive a personal income tax credit of 65 percent for donations to School Tuition Organizations, which use the money to provide grants for students to attend the school of their parents' choice.

The Alliance for School Choice is the nation's largest nonprofit organization promoting scholarship tax credit programs and parental choice in education. The selection of Eide as Advocate of the Year was made by the boards of directors of the Alliance for School Choice and its sister organization, Advocates for School Choice. Nominations were considered from across the country.

Because of Eide's leadership, the Individual School Tuition Organization Tax Credit program has provided scholarships for 7,527 low-income students, Alliance officials said.

According to Robert Teegarden, who directs the Alliance and Advocates' state projects inIowa, Sara Eide was selected because of her unfailing devotion to enhancing educational opportunities for disadvantaged children.

"Sara Eide has devoted her career to helping those less fortunate gain access to educational options that are tailored to meet the needs of several thousand individual students," Teegarden said.

With strong bipartisan support, Iowa's Democratic Governor and the Democratic legislature expanded the program by 50 percent, in part because of Eide's leadership in organizing grassroots lobbying efforts.

"Low-income children across the state can thank people like Sara Eide for their steadfast support of educational choice. She has blazed a trail for educational freedom across the state of Iowa," said Charles R. Hokanson, Jr., president of the Alliance for School Choice.

SOURCE Alliance for School Choice