Plenty of great entrepreneurs start their company with little to no experience. Having done both, I think you can learn a lot more starting a company than you can at college.
I.e. if the author's son or daughter opts for starting a company, works hard and diligently, and after three years it goes bankrupt due to: - A competitor cuts them out of the market - New regulatory laws make the original idea unprofitable/untenable - A technical breakthrough makes the product unappealing
The boy/girl may have worked as hard as if they were in college, or even way harder. And after three years their company is in debt, they have nothing worth selling/salvaging, and they are 3 years late to go to college.
Also, it is not clear if the parent intends to provide something more than just seeding money. From the article it looks like that. Is this really so? Suppose that the "baby-entrepreneur" has a really dumb idea for a start-up, but they are "passionate" about this (how many 18-years old can be passionate about financially untenable ideas?). Will the author provide money even if he cannot see anything reasonable getting out of it? And after it has failed, will he have enough money to pay an equivalent sum for going back to college?
Of course I'd help my kid get the company off the ground in whatever capacity they'd like. I help a half dozen companies now in an advisory role and I'd do the same for them.