[dragonwriter]

> The point is not that homeschooling provides a lower quality education than public schools (though I would argue that, on average, it does) - the point is that homeschooling is being done by unqualified people using unverified, quickly-considered techniques

Sometimes.

Othertimes, its being done by highly qualified professional educators who are intimately familiar with their students and who spend a lot of energy on researching educational methods specific to their student(s), with far greater focus than when they are having 150 students passed by them each day on a conveyer belt.

Would I like to guarantee that no child is subjected to the former? Certainly. Would I accept the cost of preventing children from benefitting from the latter to do it? No.

> while public schooling is at least largely done by people who got teaching certifications and their methods get public scrutiny.

Yeah, and restaurants are at least subject to inspections for compliance with requirements of facilities and methods, whereas home cooking is done by unqualified people using unverified, quickly considered techniques.

But what I cook at home is consistently better than McDonald's, still.

Industrial mass production -- whether its of food, or education, or anything else -- is rarely of the highest attainable quality.