He graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a degree in Latin American affairs.

During his eight years as governor, Bush pushed an ambitious Everglades conservation plan, supported caps for medical malpractice litigation, launched a Medicaid privatization pilot program, and instituted reforms to the state education system, including the issuance of vouchers and promoting school choice.

[6] At the age of 17, Bush taught English as a second language and assisted in the building of a school in Ibarrilla, a small village outside of León, Guanajuato, Mexico,[7] as part of Andover's student exchange summer program.

[26] In 1990, Bush urged his father to pardon Orlando Bosch, a Cuban exile who had been convicted of firing a rocket into a Polish ship which was on passage to Cuba.

Bosch was released from prison and granted residency in the U.S.[20] In 1989, Bush was the campaign manager of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the first Cuban-American to serve in Congress, in her special election.

The ad opened with pictures of the girl and then shifted to her mother who gave a description of her daughter's case and then said "Her killer is still on death row and we're still waiting for justice.

Bush further caused himself problems after being asked by reporters shortly after the ad started airing if signing death warrants immediately would have changed the outcome of the case by saying "No."

"[32] At the candidates last debate, the only one of the campaign held in prime time, moderator Tim Russert asked Bush how he could continue to justify running the ad that was "by your own admission, misleading."

It was a mistake, you shouldn't have done it," as whoops and applause rang out from Chiles partisans in the audience[33] (incidentally, the girl in the ad's convicted killer would not be executed until 2013, during the administration of Governor Rick Scott).

[63] Bush declined to raise taxes for education, which led him to oppose a ballot initiative to amend the Florida Constitution to cap growing school class sizes.

[67] In higher education, Bush approved three new medical schools during his tenure and also put forth the "One Florida" proposal, an initiative that had the effect of ending affirmative action admissions programs at state universities.

[74] He supported a law requiring parental notification for teen abortions and requested that the courts appoint a guardian for the unborn child of a mentally disabled woman who had been raped.

[75] Choose Life, a pro-life advocacy group based in Ocala, Florida, submitted a specialty license plate application—previously vetoed by Governor Lawton Chiles—which passed both houses and was signed into law by Bush on June 8, 1999.

Bush vetoed funding for both the project and the board, and led a high-profile campaign to repeal the constitutional requirement that mandated the construction of the high-speed system.

"[88] Other public officials stated that Bush's underhanded tactics were emblematic of his willingness to protect moneyed interests – including developers, energy producers and highway builders – who opposed a shift toward mass transit and helped fund the repeal effort.

In comments shared with Bloomberg View, Bush suggested that Ronald Reagan and his father would "have had a hard time" finding support in the contemporary GOP.

[117] Created by Congress, the board's purpose is to establish policy on reports examining K-12 students' academic progress in America's public and private schools.

[118] In October 2013, referring to opponents of the standards, Bush said that while "criticisms and conspiracy theories are easy attention grabbers", he instead wanted to hear their solutions to the problems in American education.

[130] On December 16, 2014, Bush announced via Facebook that he would be "actively exploring" a 2016 run to become President of the United States and at the end of the year resigned from several corporate boards.

However, Bush created controversy by releasing some emails that included some personal details such as social security numbers, names, and addresses, as well as the contents of the messages.

[135] By extending the exploration mode of his potential candidacy to a six-month period (his scheduled announcement came one day short of six months into his exploratory phase), Bush used his time to get acquainted with the press, court donors, and prepare a strategy.

[138][139][140] According to Reuters, Bush characterized himself as a moderate Republican who still has conservative principles; he promised immigration reform, spoke fluent Spanish, mentioned his wife's Mexican origins, and criticized Hillary Clinton.

[141] David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, said: "It's pretty hard for [Republicans] to win the White House if current Hispanic voting trends continue.

While he has stated that "I think global warming may be real", he has claimed that "it is not unanimous among scientists that it is disproportionately manmade", and said that "What I get a little tired of on the left is this idea that somehow science has decided all this so you can't have a view.

[153] Bush has proposed some sort of state- or local-government funded "catastrophic coverage" system, in which "if you have a hardship that goes way beyond your means of paying for it, ... the government is there or an entity is there to help you deal with that.

[155] Bush, an opponent of same-sex marriage, disagreed with the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision,[156] and believes that the issue should be decided by the states rather than by the federal government[157] and that it is not a constitutional right.

[170] In September 2020, Bush told The Carlos Watson Show that he was interested in the concept of a universal basic income, as popularized by 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

[178] Bush favors building a new U.S. base in Iraq's al-Anbar province,[151] and has said that some U.S. troops ought to be embedded with Iraqi armed forces to help train them and identify targets as joint terminal attack controllers (JTACs).

[192] Bush subsequently wrote the foreword to another book, published by the conservative Heritage Foundation and written by Nina Shokraii Rees, School Choice 2000: What's Happening in the States (ISBN 0-89195-089-3).

[194] The school's co-founder, working alongside Bush, was T. Willard Fair, a local black activist and head of the Greater Miami Urban League.