What is the purpose of public education?

There is not much point in talking about different approaches to education unless we have some idea of what we are trying to achieve.

Here are my thoughts on this:
1. The main, though not the only, purpose is to provide people with skills needed to earn a living. If a person graduates from high school with no more ability to get a job than someone with no formal education then something is seriously wrong.

2. Education should help transmit culture from one generation to the next so that people have a common heritage with which to communicate and to draw inspiration from. There is good reason to teach literature, art, music and history. I would include in this part of the justification for teaching math and science.

3. Students should be taught reasoning and problem solving skills, to be used on the job, in daily life and as responsible citizens. Knowledge is not of much use if it cannot be utilized.

4. In a world that is constantly changing, students need to learn skills for acquiring new knowledge and evaluating the correctness of various information sources. They should also be taught skills in presenting information to others. Like it or not, we are all perpetual students and educators.