You expect a newspaper to be unbiased, fair and accurate? Ha! Good luck.
To RFEngineer: Studies (such as Dr. Lawrence Rudner's 1998 examination of home schoolers) readily admit that they have not proven that home schools are superior to institutionalized schools. This is because we don't know how the home schoolers in the studies would have performed if they had been placed in public or private school. Such proof would require a prospective, randomized, controlled trial where, for example, a large group of kids are randomly selected and required to attend home school and another group is required to attend an institutionalized school. The study would have to be normalized for factors such as parental motivation. The study would be cumbersome and expensive and it would be difficult to find willing participants. Since you are so interested in the data - why don't you pay for and conduct the study?
Also, you jump to an unscientific conclusion when you claim that home schoolers are more gifted from the start. Where is your data to support this? Where are the studies? Where is your measurement of the impact of other factors, such as the superior student/teacher ratio of home schools, or the fact that the tutorial approach is more efficient and therefore allows the coverage of more material, or that a custom-tailored eduction can target weaknesses and appeal to strengths more effectively, or the impact of learning in a nurturing home environment, or the simple fact that home schoolers watch far fewer hours of tv on average than their public and private school counterparts, or the fact that home schooling maximizes parental involvement, or the fact that home schooling allows more time and freedom for enriching activities (creative play, friendships, reading, sports, hobbies, and experiencing the real world) outside of the 25 X 25 cell where public and private school kids spend most of their school day. Where is your data?