Jeb Bush Reiterates Support for Common Core

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the chairman ofFoundation for Excellence in Educationaddressed the issue of Common Core State Standardson Wednesdayduring a press conference with Louisiana Gov.Bobby Jindal and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott.

Bush spoke candidly in support of the education standards, which are set to be fully implemented in Florida's schools by the 2014-2015 school year.

"The fight about Common Core is political," said Bush. "Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we have huge swaths of the next generation of Americans that can't calculate math. They can't read. Their expectations in their own lives are way too low. And we're not going to be able to sustain this extraordinarily exceptional country unless we challenge every basic assumption on how we do things."

Bush is widely recognized as a key figure in Florida's education reforms.His "A+ Plan" placed a greater emphasis on standardized testing in Florida's public schools and eliminated social promotion for third-grade students who scored the lowest achievement level on the state reading assessment. The plan also established a system of funding public schools based on a statewide grading system using theFCATtest, which was created under his predecessor, Gov. Lawton Chiles.

If you're comfortable with mediocrity, fine. I'm not," he continued. "And I think most Floridians aren't either. ... The simple fact is no one can defend the lower standards that we have across the country.

I dont know anyone that voluntarily says lets dumb down the standards even more to make everybody feel good. If they say that, they dont say it in public because its totally indefensible."