Jeb Bush's Impact Felt on K-12 Policy

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush helps 5th graders Angelica Pinero, center, and Diamonique Christian, right, with math exercises at Tangelo Park Elementary School in Orlando, Fla. Mr. Bush visited the school as part of his work with his Foundation for Excellence in Education.

—Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/AP

By Sean Cavanagh

Jeb Bush left the Florida governor’s office in 2007 with a legacy of having brought sweeping changes to his state’s education system, through hard-edged policies that gave parents and students more choices and demanded more of schools.

Today, that legacy seems poised to grow—and well beyond Florida.

In state capitals across the country, numerous lawmakers and officeholders say they are determined to follow the ambitious, and often polarizing, education blueprint fashioned by Mr. Bush, a Republican, during his two terms as Florida’s governor. Many conservatives specifically cite Mr. Bush, who chairs a foundation that seeks to explain and expand his Florida model, as the intellectual architect of policies to support vouchers and charter schools, improved and more aggressive testing, and school grading systems, which...