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Governors Cite Education Records

—Charlie Neibergall/AP

Three hope state-level experience will boost their White House bids.

The three current presidential hopefuls with experience as state governors have records on education that offer voters an unusually detailed preview of what the nation’s schools might expect if any of the three should win the White House next year.

Those candidates—New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, on the Democratic side, and former Govs. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, in the Republican field—are still working to refine their positions on national education policy.

But their state experience already offers clues to what their priorities might be and how they might work with Congress to get their platforms accomplished, said Jacob E. Adams Jr., an education professor who studies education governance at Claremont...