Hooray! In the past week, despite fluctuating forecasts since December, we learned that the state has a $1.3 billion surplus and that the governor, the Legislature, and even citizens are licking their collective chops.

But hold up. Some have expressed caution, with reserved and even tragic economic predictions over the coming years. The economy has held up admirably, but there's one problem that stands out against all of the others: College graduates have so much debt, they cannot afford homes, potentially hurting the state's ever-important housing market in the near and distant future.

According to Minnesota Management and Budget's website, of the state's $84 billion all-funds budget forecast for 2016-17, Minnesota allocates 43 percent to health and human services, 24 percent to E-12 education, and 9 percent to transportation, among other spending categories. Alarming among all of the numbers stands one: A whopping 4 percent is allocated to higher education.

Here's a quick update, and it directly relates to our economy's future: Our college graduates rank fifth in the nation in higher education debt. This makes sense, given the statistics, and it's an atrocious reality that the governor and legislators must take seriously.

The Star Tribune Editorial Board created a recommended pie chart to "divvy" up the surplus ("How to divvy a $1.03 billion state surplus," April 10), with a quarter of that delicious pie going to transportation. In a token gesture, higher education was cut a slice that amounts to just a $35 million increase, hardly enough to address student debt. Interestingly, the board recommends a $25 million increase for "corrections staffing and health services."

At least the Department of Corrections, according to its website, is taking an educational approach: "Because 95 percent of offenders will eventually be released … it is vital to provide educational programming, treatment for … substance abuse and chemical dependency as well as vocational training."

But with a projected 2016-17 budget of over $900 million, just shy of this year's surplus, and most of it coming from the state's general fund, one must question why even a penny of the surplus would add to that already posh bottom line.

Our country leads the developed world in the number of prisons and citizens incarcerated. This depletes every state's budget, and solving the problem with more prisons and continued spending is entirely backward.

If we invest more in our youths and young adults, and if we help them believe there truly is the potential for a higher education, the E-12 system would be further strengthened, particularly in urban and low-income school districts, and the debts of college students could drop significantly. Ironically, yet not surprisingly, in our prisons — according to the Department of Corrections — people of color make up nearly half of the total adults incarcerated in the state, with black inmates alone accounting for 36 percent. In addition, considering the educational background of all incarcerated, just 18 percent of inmates had a college or higher education.

The numbers are real. The pies are real. The college debt is real. Those incarcerated are real. With an increase in higher education spending at the state level, and by lowering student debt, not only could we improve the state's economic outlook, but we could also lower the numbers of the incarcerated.

Benjamin Franklin said, "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." Take heed, those considering how to divvy up the state's $1 billion surplus in the coming months.

Jeffrey M. Ayer lives in Fridley.