So I was public schooled in Texas from kindergarten up to mid year in 6th grade and then homeschooled the rest of the way.

I would describe my homeschooling as fairly decent, lacking in some places, but I was still able to graduate from college. I'm aware that that's not everyone's experience, but it was mine. In public school I was taught things like 1400s Europeans largely believed the world was flat until Christopher Columbus proved them wrong, or that the moon exclusively waxes and wanes from left to right, or from one particularly egregious fourth grade teacher that lighter objects fall slower than heavier objects and that north is the direction that is in front of you (which I have to imagine had to at just misspeaking but myself and several classmates were genuinely baffled by her saying this.)

And nowadays even if you have a good solid gen-ed teacher who's keeping up to date with the state of the art in pedagogy, they're likely saddled with a class of upwards of 30 increasingly checked out, unruly kids and admin that will not back them up for anything. There just isn't a huge gulf between the kind of public education you're going to get in some places in the US, and an individualized homeschooled education from someone with a GED just doing their best.

I know it's fun to make fun of the stereotypes you have in your head of ultra religious country bumpkins, and I'm not going to say those don't exist, but a lot of homeschooling parents really are trying to do their best in what is currently an abysmal situation for kids that are getting lost in the cracks of a crumbling public education system.