We're probably the most career-successful of the peer group of homeschoolers we grew up around; the least successful were a SAHM last I heard. Most were tradespeople in their dad's profession. Well and good, I suppose.
There's a heavy cost to be borne to do it proper-like; it really requires one parent to stay home and be the teacher - most multimedia curricula are total drek, largely because kids just aren't that self-motivated to learn, they'd rather do legos or throw snowballs. Old Tom Sawyer stuff, you know. Human nature works best with a human teacher in meatspace.
For a US public policy perspective, I have a few thoughts - most relatively inflammatory. I don't want to have a flamewar, but I think they merit some level of thought - email me to continue the conversation.
There's a huge social cost to having diverse schooling; it funnels children out of the public schools into private schools and other alternatives, and provides a salt lake effect reducing the quality of children in schools. So I'm not actually a fan of private/charter/religous schools for that reason. It diverts funding and excellence. Homeschooling will never be popular enough (it's hard work) to really consider it a serious competitor. But it's reasonable to require tests periodically - enough parents fart around that it's a real issue.
It's my opinion that control has to pass out of the hands of local school boards upwards into state or federal level. There are far too many stories about local school boards funkifying their children's grades or ruining a teacher's career who gave their child bad grades. Similarly, teachers need not unduly worry about their career because an upset parent is panicing. There are serious issues with the structure of public schools in the US, and teachers need to be privileged much more than they are now. Admins and parents are legendary for causing issues.
It's my opinion that a tiered education approach is proper for the US: one tier for college-bound children, one tier for trade-bound, and one tier for "misc". Tiers should be broken out at 10 y/o or so based on aptitude tests & history, without much regard to parent's opinion. Similarly, children who are disruptive in class need to be shuffled out of class.
Many people think school is about socializing. That is both true and a bad idea. It doesn't have to be: anthropology and history would tell us that modern schools are a very new innovation, and generally you got socialized outside of the school system. Having your age-peers shape you primarily is contra the long standing human experience and is segregationist in concept. It'd be much better to focus on effective use of time in school and let families adapt to having more time to socialize children.
All of the above turn out to be reasons to homeschool; it's a very nice game theory picture - cooperate or defect! - what is best for my local society is that I send my children to the public school, vigorously fight for excellent academics and rigorous training of character, and make a tiny difference. What is best for my children is that I send them to a highly ranked private school or homeschool them, sacrificing either my or my spouse's career to give them 1:1 personal tutoring and drive them to the top of their potential.
edit:
As a clarifying note, there are about 4ish groups of homeschoolers in the US, broadly stroked out:
- Academic - v. common. US public schools are often bad.
- Religious (Young Earth Creationists etc)
- Difficult/gifted child has inability to cope with school
- Unschooling & crew "hippie" stuff
I have absolutely zero sympathy for the unschooling world, both philosophically and from an outcomes perspective. It's a deep disservice to the child's potential. Again, Old Tom Sawyer loved playing hooky: don't enable it...
Religious homeschooling is highly variable. A lot of it is video curricula. It can range from straight up traditional latin/greek heavy-duty academic rigor all the way over into some drivel that is a bare pastiche of what might be an education. I would advise not writing it off, but looking a bit closer at the curricula. Most is quite adequate at the basic stuff as I recall.
And, of course, all sympathy to the people struggling with the difficult children.