Jeb Bush served as the 43rd Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. While in office, his top priority was to create a world-class educational system through high standards and increased accountability. To achieve this goal, he provided a record four-year increase of $2.9 billion (26 percent) in K-12 funding. Bush also boosted the state’s reserve funds while reducing the state’s tax burden to its lowest level in a decade. He focused the state’s resources toward protecting the state’s natural environment with an historic $2-billion commitment to saving Florida’s Everglades. He has increased health insurance coverage for needy children and provided unprecedented levels of funding and services to the elderly and the developmentally disabled.