The chapter 70 formula is shaped first by the constitutional mandate to equalize educational opportunity. So, the communities with lowest property wealth and incomes receive the greatest aid. Additionally, since 2006, an effort has been made to bring all communities up to at least 17.5% of their “foundation budget”. The foundation budget is a low standardized estimate of the cost of providing a basic education to a student population.
The chart below arrays communities in descending order of wealth — most of the communities in the top half of the chart are receiving aid in roughly the 17.5% of foundation budget range. As one progresses down the chart to the poorest communities, aid approaches 100%. Note that there are a few outliers in the chart, some of which are due to regional school allocations (which might push foundation budget down); no effort was made to correct for regional school participation in this chart.
Click here to see the spreadsheet underlying the chart.