I don't have a dog in this hunt, but I do have some opinions on home schooling. In the US I don't believer it is considered odd nor that it puts children 'at risk'. Rather, in my experience, a family that homeschools tends to be considered 'hands on' parents with a great interest in seeing that their children do well without the distractions of problem children in the public schools and with the hope of getting the children safely past the peer pressures.

The children that I know that were homeschooled are almost invariably ahead of their age groups in class levels and with higher grades.

My daughter (in public schools all the way) homeschooled - in California - her three children for the first three grades then went to a dual set up, where she taught at home three days a week and they went to charter school for the other two days. My daughter does not have a teaching degree (She majored in English) but for those two days each week she taught as a teachers assistant in the same charter school.

When they reached high school age, all three children went to parochial high school, I think it's called. One child now is in her second year at Arizona State, her twin is attending Community College, getting some of the required courses out of the way and working part time, the youngest child is a senior at high school.

My niece and her husband in Oregon also homeschool their brood. Their two biological children attended public schools all the way: one is a young man who today doesn't seem to know what he wants out of life, the other is a young woman who will always do well. She is a Nurse Practitioner/Midwife who teaches several nursing courses annually at a local college; she got married several years ago and they now have a year old baby.

When their children were half grown my niece and her husband started taking in foster children; they ended up adopting nine of them. All of them Fetal Alcohol affected, to a greater or lesser degree. They homeschooled every one of them.

The first three - all about the same age - are about 22 years old now: two are now married and one just had a baby a few months ago. My niece and her husband's remaining children range in age from 8 to 14 or so.

Oh- neither my niece nor her husband attended college.

My whole point is that every case is different, but - at least in the US - home education does not trigger a black mark against the student, and that it needn't entail an either/or situation.