Our family made that expensive mistake twice: Once on the Calvert School correspondence program and again on the Brigham Young University high school program. They were everything that we were trying to avoid by not using the government schools.
Why homeschool if all the parent is doing is recreating in the home everything that is wrong with the institutionalized classroom?
What needs to change is the GED. Any child of any age should be allowed to take the exam at any time. The government teachers in our state resist this every year. Hey! Bright government schooled kids would flee the government schools and head immediately for college at the first opportunity. That would mean fewer jobs for the teachers.
I agree wholeheartedly! I know my 12yo could pass the GED test easily right now. But, unfortunately, most people think "high school dropout" when they hear that someone holds a GED. In our state, the younger homeschooled teens just take the placement test for community college, and then they can earn dual credit there. But I'm not exactly sure how it works.
Also, I read recently that our state will issue a "state-issued diploma" to any student age 16 or above who has earned a GED and a minimum number of college credits.