Bad Education

Without wanting to be overly cynical, history shows us that if a regime wishes to dominate its people with minimal resistance it will target independent learning first.  Sapping the will to learn is a very effective tool in controlling what is thought about.  In the Middle Ages, only the clergy and the nobility were educated.  And unless something is done, you will find that in the US the trend will be increasingly similar. 

Affordable and sensible tertiary education is your only solution.  Certainly, more needs to be done at primary level -- however if parents know they won't be able to afford college tuition for their children the incentive is already absent from the home.  Kids will do the bare minimum just to make it through until they're old enough to leave and take some menial job.  Minds will never be allowed to develop.  

On the up side, McDonalds will have plenty of willing employees.  And so will the armed forces.