Education is costly, and thus competes with projects that directly favour various lobby groups. You cannot cut taxes, fund pork-barrel projects and simultaneously invest more in education.
The politicians understand well that poor science education do long-term harm, but RIGHT NOW they need to cut taxes. Likewise, the 200,000 structurally obsolete bridges will not collapse during the current fiscal year, so there is little incentive to invest in maintenance.
Regulation of banks will prevent a new depression, but that is a problem for the future. Right now, a useful level of regulation of the banking system is ideologically unsound.
The people who make these bad decisions are highly intelligent and well-educated, but they are “politruks” who will not consider any heresy, nor consider long-term problems. We are dealing with institutionalised dysfunction, not a random group of idiots.