AZ HB2704

Freezes new charter school creation by school districts, the State Board of Education, State Board for Charter Schools, universities, and community colleges for schools beginning operations after June 30, 2013, and prevents conversion of existing district schools to charter schools with the same restriction.

Establishes a three-year K-6 technology-based language development and literacy intervention pilot program for English language learners, selecting up to 10 school districts and 5 charter schools to participate with state-funded educational software meeting specific literacy requirements.

Reduces K-12 school funding by $238,985,500 in district additional assistance and $15,656,000 in charter additional assistance for fiscal year 2014-2015, with maximum reductions of $5,000,000 for small districts under 1,100 pupils.

Increases the base level funding amount to $3,386.97 per student for fiscal year 2014-2015 and adjusts charter additional assistance to $1,677.77 for K-8 and $1,990.38 for grades 9-12.

Creates the Student Success Fund with performance-based distributions to eligible school districts and charter schools capped at $1.5 million statewide for fiscal year 2014-2015, based on academic achievement and improvement metrics.