Should the primary responsibility of public education be preparing a person for for the market economy?

If so does public education do a good job of preparing are youth for work and adulthood? It is hard to believe the great majority of kids getting out of high school don't know what compound interest is. I think public education is a miserable failure and our prisions reflect their performance. Your thoughts please.

If our prisons reflect their performance, why are most of the people in prison poor? Plenty of middle and upper class people go to public schools and don't end up in prison.
I think you have oversimplified the argument. Learning about compound interest won't prevent people from committing crimes. Although it would be nice if kids were taught how to balance a checkbook, or the consequences of getting into debt. The restrictions imposed on our schools by standardized testing and its effect on funding have a huge negative impact on public education, and so does the fact that teachers are not paid well--if the pay was higher, the qualifications could be higher, and we could have more competent people teaching our kids.

Definitely not. The prime function of public education should be to prepare someone to fulfill their place in the world, and in their society; to the best of their ability; and to PREPARE someone for further education (public or not).
It is later education that should prepare someone for a career. How many kids truly know what they want to do when they are in elementary school, or even high school?