mimight even m make you ugly cr. anand that s o okay. just feel it.. feelel all the g goodness. because this is cnn heroes. ooh. announcer: from the american museum of natural history in new york city, this is the 17th annual cnn heroes: an all-star tribute. honoring everyday people changing the world. please welcome your hosts, anderson cooper and laura coates. [ cheers and applause ] and thank you and welcome to the 17th annual cnn heroes: an all-star tribute. we are coming to you live from the milstein hall of ocean life at the american museum of natural history in new york. and we want to welcome our viewers watching around the world. and i want to say a very special welcome to cnn s laura coates. we are so glad you re here. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] wow! i m glad to be here. i had a prom under a whale once and i was alone, so i m glad i m here with you right now. wow, that s quite a story. it is. we ll talk later. all right. it s an honor t
aquamanan: the e lost kingdomos too. anand you re a about to meet a e bunch ofof them. sosome of ththeir inspiriring s mighght even makake you ugugly . and d that s o okay. just feel itit.. feelel all thehe goodness. because this is cnn heroes. ooh. announcer: from the american museum of natural history in new york city, this is the 17th annual cnn heroes: an all-star tribute. honoring everyday people changing the world. please welcome your hosts, anderson cooper and laura coates. [ cheers and applause ] and thank you and welcome to the 17th annual cnn heroes: an all-star tribute. we are coming to you live from the milstein hall of ocean life at the american museum of natural history in new york. and we want to welcome our viewers watching around the world. and i want to say a very special welcome to cnn s laura coates. we are so glad you re here. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] wow! i m glad to be here. i had a prom under a whale once and i was alone, so i
all our passengers comfortable, so my idea was we don t have a class. we want it to be affordable, but also, like, a nice experience. but opportunities like this aren t compulsory. in 2012, the government took work experience off the curriculum in england. nick brook runs speakers for schools a charity calling for change. we know that talent is spread evenly across the country, but opportunity isn t. we can take actions now which can have a transformational impact on life chances for young people. so how much of this is still about who you know? what we know is, about half of children in this country leave school without having had any work experience whatsoever. the half that do quite often, that s arranged by parents who are calling on their own networks. now, we don t think that s fair. we don t think it should be reliant on who mum and dad know or where they might work to determine whether or not a young person can have a work experience opportunity. research from the charity s
even in politics, which i never thought of being a politician at all, i never thought of being an mp. but even when i first started, ifelt like my life had kind of been leading to this point without me knowing. and certainly, education secretary, if you could choose one thing, it would be education secretary, not only going to a failing comprehensive school in knowsley for the full five years and getting really in my dna. people say about levelling up, about recognising that talent is everywhere but opportunity isn t i lived that and i thoroughly and fully believe it. and i know because i see the faces of all the people who were there, i still see them. all my friends are mostly still in knowsley. we ll talk about the good bits in a second, but first of all, the bad. why was it nicknamed st disgusting? 0h, they werejust jealous, i m sure. no, i don t know. was it really poor? there were some ten comprehensive schools in knowsley. they were all failing. they were all inadequate. they
well, it turned out i became the news story. i was on gogglebox, i was on the news quiz. which conservative politician doesn t know.? as though i was the stupidest person. obviously the knowsley comprehensive education. did that come out? it didn t. it did with a few people. you re always a little bit too thick to know the answer. yes, yes. and i thought, well, you re too thick to see what i ve done in the intervening period. you know, it s all there on wikipedia. this is the perfect set up for me to ask you some questions about what you ll do as education secretary because. i hope i know! this is not, you know, a news interrogation, as i always say. if you don t know or don t want to say yet, you can say. money you ll know is going to be one of the big ones, isn t it? oncejeremy hunt, the new chancellor, announces spending on schools per pupil, real terms, is lower than it was when the tories came into power in 2010. truth is, it s not going to get higher, is it? well, this is the r