a higher standard of living for people could no doubt minimize the incidents of fundementalism
This.
Not necessarily, the US has high standards of education and it has a quite large fundie base. Or look at the rise of fundamentalism in North Africa and India.
Well, perhaps what is needed at least in the case of education is not just a higher standard but also a fundemental shift in how students are taught.
An emphasis on how to think critically and how to apply that critical thinking should certainly be a big part of education. Reducing the reliance of on tests and exams as a mark of progress and achievement and rather use them to help illustrate any particular weaknesses a student might have could also improve quality. I would say certainly scrap mulitple choice tests because they really aren't anything but a student repeating something by rote and that's really not learning.
So, maybe it would be better to argue for an increase in the quality of education rather than the standard.
Of course, Education alone no matter the quality wouldn't solve the problem, it would need to be raising the Quality of life in general, which means access to public facilities, healthcare, training for work, social activities such as sporting clubs and the like. I am sure there are some ideas that I have missed out there but those are the some of the ones I think are important.
A higher quality of life, I imagine, would reduce the feeling of helplessness and isolation that would assuredly drive people towards a fundementalist belief where, despite the repressing, opressive nature that can come with such beliefs, the person involved at least has some sense of belonging and community which is important for human beings, after all, we do not function well on our own.