PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Nov 16, 2015
Next Generation High Schools Act
This bill requires the Department of Education to award competitive, five-year grants to local educational agencies or charter schools that partner with specified institutions and intermediaries to provide high school students with challenging academic and career-related learning opportunities. Applicants must assure that school improvement funds will be allocated to eligible high schools in amounts that are proportionate to those schools' share of low-income students.
"Eligible high schools" are those that: (1) serve a population of students of which at least 65% are from low-income families; (2) have a graduation rate at or below 67%, excepting new high schools; (3) do not receive school improvement funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965; and (4) are identified by their state as low-performing.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
Grantees must use grant funds to:
develop and implement partnerships to help schools prepare students to apply academic concepts to real world challenges;
implement an early warning indicator system in eligible high schools and feeder middle schools to identify struggling students;
offer support and credit recovery opportunities for struggling students at the grantee's secondary schools or in other appropriate settings;
provide drop-out recovery or re-entry programs;
offer evidence-based programs and supports related to the transition from middle school to high school; and
provide high school leaders, staff, students, and families with information concerning graduation requirements, postsecondary admission requirements, the availability of financial assistance, labor markets, and other programs and services to improve the prospects of traditionally underserved students.
People & committees
Rep. Wilson, Frederica S. [D-FL-24] · D–FL
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.
Referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Mar 23, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze H.R.4020 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine H.R.4020 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine H.R.4020 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine H.R.4020 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.