Yes, home schooling should be illegal, unless in very special circumstances such as a child's mental/social condition.
Firstly, home-schooling lowers the social abilities of the children enrolled in its courses. When a child does not go to school and does not interact with children their age, their social development is hindered. I'm not saying home-schoold children have no social interaction, I'm just saying its obvious that they have much less (and in some cases, none at all) than the children who go to school and learn in a classroom surrounded by peers. There are numerous things that home-schooled children can do to achieve social interaction (Sports, camps, scouts) but on the whole, none of these activities compare to an actual school setting. This lack of social interaction affects the children's ability to make friends and relate to people later in life, eventually becoming a liability.
And the lack of social interaction isn't the only problem arising from not attending school. Its also about gaining perspective and learning via social interaction. In a classroom, there are about 30 kids, all who can provide input, and different perspectives on a certain topic. And this also is true of the teacher. When a child learns from a parent, who, lets say, have intensely strong right-winged views, the child won't question his parents, and won't have any other adult authority to input a different perspective for the child to consider. Of course, the child could have a coach or an uncle, but for most children, they hold their most intellectual and probing conversations with two adults they respect: Their teacher and their parent. If their parent is both, or if the child is taught via a program (Which mean they will still revert to their parents for such conversations) then the child is only exposed to one perspective, and no discussion is provided to help the child challenge these views and decide for themself what they personally believe. Its almost as if the children who are home-schooled have lost, not free will per se, but they are less exposed to different perspectives, whereas, in a school, a child is exposed to multiple ones. I learned this recently in my tutorials at Uni, where the class frequently held deep discussions, and we all learned from each other. The entire process of discussion in a classroom setting is a form of learning, rather than just a lecture from an online program or a one-sided parent. It broadens the horizon of the child, making them more aware, open-minded, and on the whole, more enlightened.
And learning via questioning is the final arguement I would like to address. Children, humans in fact, are inquisitive by nature, and when someone asks a question, and are either confirmed or corrected, they learn from it. When home-schooled, whether it be by a parent, private tutor, or program, their is always a larger margin for error. Parents and private tutors, even if they are qualified teachers, cannot address the inquiries of their students in every subject the child is learning, there will always be mistakes. And when learning via a home-schooling program, I personally don't believe children will retain things as well from asking a program or wikipedia their question. On the other hand, in a school, children ask questions to teachers who have all gone through 8 years of university in a specific field and they know how to answer the majority of questions. I'm not saying they'll know everything, but there will be much less of a chance of the child recieving a false answer/no answer at all.
So on the whole, unless the child is severely autistic or has some other social/mental condition, there should be no excuse for home-schooling.
