KINDER ANNOUNCES QUEST FOR 2ND TERM

More than 60 supporters and fellow Republicans gathered Sunday evening at the Holiday Inn as State Sen. Peter Kinder formally announced his re-election bid. He is seeking a second term in office.

Kinder was elecged to the Missouri Senate in November 1992. Last month, he was one of the first candidates to file for election in Jefferson City. Candidate filing closes March 26 at 5 p.m.

"After four years in the Missouri Senate, I have a record on which I am proud to run," Kinder said.

During his four years in office, Kinder has been an outspoken opponenent of Outcome Based Education.

"I have tried to sound the alarm about efforts launched at the state lvel to implement Outcome Based Education and dumb down our schools," he said. "In some parts our efforts have been thwarted, in others we've achieved a measure of success."

Education reform and parental choice also will be issues in the 1996 campaign, he added. "The battle continues," Kinder said.

Kinder supports an amendment to the Missouri Constitution that would allow parents to choose through a voucher system which school, whether public, private or parochial, their child attends.

"I dream of the day when the parents of poor and middle-income children enjoy the same rights that parents of the wealthy have always enjoyed -- to send their children to the school of their choice," he said, adding that the program can be implemented so that public education is improved.

Kinder will face Democratic candidate Rick Althaus of Cape Girardeau in the November election.