What should be the purpose of public schools within modern society?

I was listening to an interview with the secretary of education discussing modernizing public schools, and what their purpose in the world today should be. It’s a really broad and open ended question. Feel free to take it in any direction.

In the U.S. they were created mostly to bring basic literacy to the masses. We’ve long since achieved and surpassed that goal, but there’s not agreement on where to go from here. A few ideas to spark conversation:

Should we continue focusing on basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic? This plays into a sub debate about continuing to teach cursive, or stop at basic printing. Should they leave as much outside of traditional educational basics to parents to teach at home? Should materials provided to students be diverse or tightly regulated (like with some of the current book banning debates)?

Should schools be more or less academic? Focusing on STEM, or should they be preparing kids for work? Should there be a shift to life skills and social skills training? Are the arts still important to prioritize? Should we focus on testing and international competitiveness on skills?

Should schools provide wrap around social services? The secretary used the example of a child not being able to complete assignments if they have a toothache, are hungry, don’t know where they’ll sleep that night, or a million other things. Should they step in, or leave that to independent agencies and just focus on curriculum?

Something entirely different?