

Jeb Bush (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

While Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa is trying to get the Common Core State Standards initiative defunded in Congress, other Republicans, especially former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, keep doing everything they can to promote the Core. Bush’s latest: He said in an interview with the Miami Herald that critics of the standards and of standardized testing care too much about kids’ self-esteem.

Here is what the Herald said he said:

Bush has repeatedly explained the standards, implemented and controlled by the states, are designed to make the United States more competitive with the rest of the world. He said those who oppose the standards support the “status quo,” oppose testing and are worried too much about children’s self-esteem. “Let me tell you something. In Asia today, they don’t care about children’s self esteem. They care about math, whether they can read – in English – whether they understand why science is important, whether they have the grit and determination to be successful,” Bush said. “You tell me which society is going to be the winner in this 21st Century: The one that worries about how they feel, or the one that worries about making sure the next generation has the capacity to eat everybody’s lunch?”

Bush didn’t say exactly why he thinks the Core standards and testing will give the next generation the “capacity to eat everybody’s lunch.”