I am not doubting that homeschooling has some major advantages, however I think that these statistics cannot be taken at face value. Other studies have shown (and it is pretty much common sense) that children do better in school when their parents or some other adult in their life takes an interest in their schooling, checks homework, etc. I think it is pretty safe to say that any child being homeschooled has such a person in their life, or they would not be homeschooled in the first place. However, this is certainly not true of every student in public or private school. This, along with other factors, means that you are not comparing similar sample sets.

Additionally, homeschooling allows the instructor to tailor the instruction to the learning style that is best suited for that child. Since the instructor is usually a relative or a close family friend, determining that style is usually fairly straightforward. Public schools will never have this luxury unless class sizes are drastically reduced, and even then, it would be very difficult. I have no doubt that being taught on an individual basis by someone who knows you and your capabilities well would drastically shorten the amount of time for the lesson, but it's just not something that you are going to see much of in a public school.

I have mixed emotions about the fewer days with longer hours issue. After a certain length of time, people - especially younger children - just shut down. That's why there are so many breaks, recesses, whatever in school. The average attention span of an adult is somewhere around 23 minutes, and that of a child is less. Even with breaks, after so long into the day, retention of material learned is going to be less. I guess it would be okay as long as they keep math and science in the morning and put gym last. (As a side note, I read some place but cannot recall the source that employees working a 5 day/8 hour week were more productive than those working a 4 day/10 hour week for the same reasons.)

As for the school voucher system, despite the opposition, I really can see nothing but good about it. It puts the lower income families on a more equal footing with the high income children who already have a choice of schools. In addition, it could get schools to start running themselves like a business. No - I do not mean just to make money. A business has to provide for the needs of their customers or risk losing their customers to another business that takes care of them better. In the current public school system, you don't get a choice no matter how bad the situation is. With the voucher system, you would. Not only would this be wonderful for the students, but it would serve the teachers well, too. In this "business of education", the schools would want to have the best teachers in order to attract as many students as possible. To get the best, you have to be willing to pay so salaries would become more competitive just as it is at colleges and universities.