If this was my exposure to homeschooling I’d be alarmed too. I’ll just say there are also a lot of homeschoolers in NYC who do it for very different reasons - to give their kids individualized instruction, more freedom to learn in idiosyncratic ways, and even for some a chance to go deep on STEM stuff before it’s in the official curriculum yet (this obviously varies based on the kid and parent).

There are also people who do it for a 2-5 years and end up then putting their kid in public schools. I’m not sure 5, 6 and 7 year olds were meant to sit still indoors for 6-7 hours a day and there is a good argument for giving them more time for free play. Also the gap between specialized teacher knowledge vs motivated parent knowledge widens as the material gets more advanced. (Though with homework, you still end up needing to do remedial education on yourself in either context).