The unemployment rate sits at around 4.3%, technically inside the band the Federal Reserve calls a healthy labor market. Yet anyone helping a teenager pick a college major right now feels a distinct shift in the 2026 landscape: AI tools that write code have automated many entry-level “junior” tasks, leading to white-collar layoffs in once-secure fields. Computer science, the degree parents pushed kids toward for two decades, is suddenly part of a high-stakes conversation about whether college is worth the debt when foundational roles are being hived off by automation.
That is the tension Ron Lieber, who writes the Your Money column for The New York Times, walked into on a recent episode of Paula Pant’s Afford Anything podcast titled Is a Computer Science Degree Still Worth the Debt? Lieber’s central argument focused on how parents should talk to their kids in the first place, rather than on majors or salaries.
The Idea Sparker Argument
Lieber’s framing for the parental role: “Part of your job, especially when they don’t want to take your advice, you know, when they become adolescents is to be somebody that’s just like the pop-ups that, you know, appear above people’s heads like a light bulb, you know, when an idea sparks. You want to be an idea sparker.”
On persistence: “Even if they reject 97, 98, 99 out of 100 things you send to them, something’s going to land and it can make a difference.”
Lieber is right about the method but incomplete on the math. The drip campaign of articles and podcasts is the correct way to influence a teenager, but sparking ideas without putting earnings data and the “opportunity cost” of a degree in front of them leaves families making six-figure financial decisions on vibes. For a student interested in digital marketing or solo-preneurship, the ROI of a $200,000 degree must now be weighed against the potential of smaller, specialized certifications combined with seed capital for a personal venture.
The Financial Concept Parents Actually Need
The mechanic underneath this conversation is education ROI: the lifetime earnings premium of a specific degree from a specific school, set against the all-in cost, including borrowed money and four years of forgone wages.
Pant points families to the right starting point. In her words, “The College Scorecard is the best quantitative data that we have. It is a federal website that tracks earnings outcomes, and you can sort both by school as well as by major.”
Run a realistic scenario. A student enrolls at a private university with a sticker price of roughly $70,000 per year. After scholarships, they borrow $30,000 a year, graduating with $120,000 in debt. On a standard 10-year repayment schedule at 7%, the monthly payment lands near $1,400. To service that comfortably, gross income needs to clear roughly $80,000 quickly, or the loan eats into rent and retirement contributions.
However, in 2026, many tech companies are removing degree requirements entirely. A “Portfolio of Work”—whether it is a GitHub repository or a published marketing Substack—often carries more weight than a diploma. If the Scorecard shows a median graduate earning $58,000, the math fails, especially when a self-built portfolio might yield similar entry-level results without the debt.
Where the Advice Fits and Where It Misfires
Lieber’s idea-sparker approach works well for families with a 15 to 18 year old still forming opinions and parents willing to send links without lecturing. It misfires for families staring down a deposit deadline with a student already committed emotionally to an expensive school whose data does not justify the borrowing. At that point, the conversation needs to be direct. Drip-feeding podcast episodes will not undo $120,000 in loans signed next month.
What To Actually Do This Month
- Pull the College Scorecard data for every school and major your child is considering, specifically looking at median earnings ten years out to see if the degree provides long-term “resilience” against market shifts.
- Calculate the monthly loan payment against expected gross monthly income. If the payment exceeds 10%, the plan needs revising, perhaps by looking at “Co-op” heavy programs where students gain a year of paid work experience before graduation.
- Build the idea-sparker pipeline Lieber describes. Use your own professional network to set up 20-minute “informational interviews” or “shadowing lite” sessions so your child can hear how professionals are actually integrating AI into their daily workflows.
- Audit for AI Integration. Before committing to a school, research whether their curriculum teaches *with* AI as a tool or is still operating on a pre-2023 model that ignores the current technological reality.
Lieber gets the parenting right and Pant supplies the data layer. Send the articles, plant the seeds, and ensure that any school on the final list can defend its cost with modern earnings numbers and a curriculum that prepares students for an AI-augmented workforce.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect the 2026 labor market shifts, including the impact of AI on entry-level roles and the rise of skills-based hiring over traditional degree requirements. New sections were added to address the “opportunity cost” of college versus solo-preneurship and to provide parents with actionable steps for auditing a college’s technical curriculum.
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