Should Public Schools Inculcate Values in Students?

NO

schools should be passing along knowledge , only

It is not possible for schools to pass along only knowledge. Someone needs to decide what is important for students to learn, and that act alone will cause the implicit transmission of the value of certain knowledge over other knowledge.

With that said, public schools should pass along values such as compassion, self-knowledge, and be taught the value of their citizenship. Parents are generally ill-equipped to pass along the necessary values of a democratic society because most are ignorant to them to begin with. Education's sole goal should be to plant the seeds of citizenship and foster the growth of good citizens.

on what basis then should the necessary values be based on ?

so education by public schools teaches nothing but brain-washing ?

not the ability to learn and question ?

very strange concept of education

Schools cannot help but impart these values. They must to achieve even the most modest level of classroom management without which no knowledge could be passed on.

If we say that schools should pass on knowledge only, then doesn't this imply that it must perforce also pass on the criteria for what constitutes knowledge, as well as a whole cluster of intellectual values that are aligned with that criteria? Teaching any academic subject seems to imply teaching the value of intellectual honesty, critical thinking, and open and free discussion of ideas.

For example, values such as patriotism, tolerance of different viewpoints and sexual orientations, equality, and the like.

Well at the very least schools must instill the value of knowlege, facts, experience and of reason.
If you can get those across, lots of other problems will get solved.

1) how?
2) most knowledge is subjective, sounds good on paper, but doesn't work irl.
3) who's philosophy is the better?
4) experience of buisness, sports, war ..etc are often very dirty, shady ..etc, and not really ideal stuff to teach.

What is it you think schools should be doing then?

Of course there was the old quip, that schools are not good for children and they do not learn much either.

Teaching values isn't brain-washing -- at least it doesn't have to be. There's no reason to think that teaching children to be tolerant of other lifestyles or that democracy is better than totalitarianism will stunt their ability to learn and question.

Political regimes do not reproduce themselves automatically. If left to their own devices, not everyone will come to understand basic democratic values (legitimacy based on consent, equal rights, etc.). It's perfectly acceptable -- probably even obligatory -- for a democracy to try to persuade school children that democracy and democratic values are good things.

Saying that democracy is better than totalitarianism is a judgment call. The student should be given the resources required to come to their own conclusion. When introduced to the alternatives to democracy, each with their own merits and demerits, most students will still hold democracy above the rest. But it's a great disservice to present a judgment as a fact to students.

Please point me to a totalitariam regime that is better than democrasy.

Well what you value in a government would depend on your situation and values. The point is that value judgments shouldn't be taught to students as facts.