According to a report done by the Oklahoma Tax Commission, $19.3 million of the $91.7 million in tax credits issued through the Parental Choice Tax program were awarded to households with an adjusted gross income higher than $250,000. AllSides highlights content from Gigafact, a network of newsrooms that respond to online claims. View the full fact brief on Oklahoma Watch.

In recent weeks, a major debate has gripped the field of economics, one with significant policy stakes. In one sense, the debate is about the nature and extent of inequality in the US: are the rich really taking more of the pie than ever before? Has their share of income been growing very fast, or gradually? Is inequality the defining challenge of our time, or simply one among many?

In another, perhaps more accurate, sense, the debate is about how to interpret IRS audit studies and assign retirement income across time.

During the pandemic, the U.S. government pulled out all the stops to try to keep Americans' financial lives intact. To a stunning degree, it worked.

Why it matters: The pandemic-era actions of the government prevented a spiral of declining asset values, depleted savings and higher household debt.

It is a stark contrast with the 2008 crisis, when there was no widespread private sector debt relief, asset prices plunged, and households spent a decade working through their debt overhang.

American families on average saw large gains in income and wealth from 2019 to 2022 and households became less fragile during a period marked by the severe disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and massive subsequent government spending, a Federal Reserve survey published Wednesday showed.

But the income gains were largest among the highest-earning families, and fastest among white families, with income at the median actually registering small declines for both Hispanic and Black families, the Fed found in its latest Survey of Consumer Finances, conducted every three years.

Real median net worth surged a whopping 37% between 2019 and 2022, the Federal Reserve revealed in a report.

The Fed released a 58-page report on Wednesday analyzing changes in family finances based on its survey of consumer finances, which it has been conducting every three years since 1989. The newest report is of particular interest because it assesses a period that includes the coronavirus pandemic and the country’s worst inflation in decades.

On one side of Chauncy Street in downtown Boston last week, laid-off tech workers came to the headquarters of internet provider Starry to drop off their company equipment and say goodbye. “It’s sad,” says the security guard downstairs. “I tell them I’m sorry.”

The federal government significantly and intentionally misreports income distribution, sparking bad policies and political divisions.

That’s the argument former senator Phil Gramm and two other economists, Robert Ekelund and John Early, lay out in their compelling and essential new book, “The Myth of American Inequality: How Government Biases Policy Debate.”

San Francisco saw the single largest drop in median income of any major city in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic as wealthy tech workers fled the city in droves, according to census data.

The U.S. Census Bureau compiled data on the nation's top 25 most populous metropolitan areas from 2019 to 2021 to help determine the impact of the pandemic. Median household income for the area of San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland fell 4.6% from $121,551 in 2019 to $116,005 in 2021. New York City followed closely, however, with a drop of 4.2%.

Phil Gramm’s new book makes the case that the official statistics overstate inequality in America and understate progress and mobility.

President Joe Biden acted as if he was being compassionate to people suffering economic hardships when he announced last week his plan for forgiving billions of dollars in student loans.

"Using the authority Congress granted the Department of Education, we will forgive $10,000 in outstanding federal student loans," he said.

"In addition, students who come from low-income families which allowed them to qualify to receive a Pell Grant will have their debt reduced $20,000," he said.