A kid who is kept home from school for “homeschool” that doesn’t actually happen is worse off, educationally, than that same kid going to school with a similarly lackadaisical parent, given the fact that he’s likely to run into at least a couple of competent teachers, administrators or peers in 13 years in the system. That’s why the floor is higher for public school, there’s simply a higher chance of them at least getting something out of it. Public school takes a lot less parental effort.

And homeschool kids rarely seem to have parents that don’t care. They just have ones who don’t know their limitations, or how hard homeschool is to do well. Those same kids would likely do fine in school if their parents dropped their delusions.