[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 73 (Tuesday, June 13, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S5023]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING MOKAN KIDS NETWORK

   Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, I stand before you today to 
recognize the accomplishments of the MoKan Kids Network and to 
congratulate it for winning the 21st Century Award from the Association 
of America's Public Television Stations. The 21st Century Award is 
given to public television stations that demonstrate extraordinary 
involvement in long-range planning, collaboration with others, 
experimentation with new technologies or the creation of new services 
for undeserved communities. The MoKan Kids Network, a service of Kansas 
City Public Television, Smoky Hills Public Television, and 350 Missouri 
and Kansas school districts, has helped move classroom instruction into 
the 21st century.
  The MoKan Kids Network provides instructional television, online 
networking and professional development and teacher training for 30,000 
teachers in Missouri and Kansas. The network offers teachers more than 
700 hours of educational video materials for classroom use and provides 
teachers with Internet access and curriculum-based web browsing 
capabilities. MoKan also makes available to teachers special training 
through its National Teacher Training Institutes, online conferences, 
and hands-on training in computer labs. MoKan's generous resources have 
allowed teachers to offer an enriched learning experience to 350,000 
elementary and secondary students in Missouri and Kansas.
  Mr. President, please join me in congratulating the MoKan Kids 
Network for being honored with the 21st Century Award. We thank MoKan 
for its fruitful efforts supporting educational broadcasting, and we 
hope its example will influence others around the country to establish 
similar programs.

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