What should be the job of a public school?

Well, presumably you do a little bit of both. But the former is far more important. Furthermore, you have to ask yourself -- who is best equipped to help themselves succeed? While we all like to imagine ourselves as millionaire geniuses who really just "fell between the cracks", actual millionaire geniuses manage to succeed without a lot of hand-holding.

As Sean Connery said in The Rock, "Losers always whine about doing their best. Winners go home and **** the Prom Queen."