I guess I must chime in here. I homeschooled my daughters - my older two until junior high and the younger two for all of elementary. I did take my youngest out of high school for a time, too, because she was not focusing on education but fooling around (she was very angry at me at the time). When I first started, homeschooling was pretty rare and parents were still bucking the system. Then one school district decided to promote online/distance learning and I was able to enrol my daughters in a regular, approved program. We worked hard to meet the requirements and do the lessons, but I found so much of the material was garbage.
It reminded me why I decided to homeschool my kids in the first place. It was only partly because of the JW school is bad association thing. It was because the school system sucked. I was bored out of my tree at school. It is geared towards the middle-low intelligence learner, sometimes to the lowest common denominator. I skipped grade one and scored off the charts on all the intelligence tests they gave me. It's worse now. I have several teachers in my family and they tell me of struggles in their classrooms with mainstreaming - where they have a developmentally-disabled child who screams and makes noises all day long and how difficult it is for any of the other kids to learn anything in that environment. Kids who are gifted and talented are left to fend for themselves.
My girls did not lack for friendships either. They were involved in dance and music and had many friends (yeah, yeah, I know - I was a rebel among the JWs and believe me, I paid for it).
When I did finally send my girls to school I sent them to an arts academy, so at least they had some extra stimulation. My oldest two both graduated from university, and my youngest has had a successful career so far (earns more than I do and she's only in her mid 20s) even though she chose not to formally finish grade 12 within the system. The only one who hasn't done well academically has struggled as a direct cause of the JW religion and an attack my family made on me to try and force her back into the religion when she was younger.
So I think home schooling can be really good. But it needs to be done for the right reasons. One of our MLAs here in my province spoke about his son and why his wife (a veterinarian) decided to pull both kids out of school. When the child's teacher found out how smart the kid was she told the mother that she was dreading getting him into her classroom because she had no resources to help any child who was above average. Any parent who wants the best for their kids either has to be actively involved day-to-day, put them in private school, or homeschool. The public school system in North America does not value smart, talented kids enough, or nurture their creativity, IMO.
My grandchildren are all in public school because their moms have to work and cannot homeschool - but they are all in a small spanish academy where they are getting a quality education with the benefit of a second language.