The short answer is “no”.
But the reason is not, as most FReepers would like to believe, that the professoriate is largely loony-left (which is true), but because the K-12 schools don’t produce enough graduates capable of fully benefiting from a proper college education, yet we push almost everyone into going to college.
The place where the professoriate being loony-left takes its real toll is through the colleges of education, which the several states have given monopolies on producing K-12 teachers. “Whole language” as a replacement for phonics, “discovery learning” as a substitute for drill in basic arithmetic (not a supplement to drill in basic arithmetic, which would be a grand thing, but as a substitute), and “social promotion” are all the result of doctrinaire leftist enthusiasms in colleges of education. The result is high-school graduates whose writing ability ranges from formulaic (every paragraph must have a topic sentence. . .) to virtually non-existent (no real grasp of grammar or standard usage: they write as they speak, which is not well), who have “calculus” or “pre-calculus” on their high-school transcript, but who can’t add fractions correctly, many of whom can’t read at the level needed for real university-level courses. We professors do the best we can with such folks, but they are a drag on educating the folks who really should be in college. (And yes, unaccountably, our K-12 schools still turn out a fair number of them, despite the best attempts of the Deweyites and Vygotskians to ruin education.)
We would be far better off if our credential-happy society stopped demanding a bachelors degree for jobs whose content could be learned at a trade-school or on-the-job. Of course, we probably can’t do this until we fix K-12 education, because quite frankly, college is now what high school was in the 1940’s (the faculty at my father’s high school didn’t have ed degrees, they had masters degrees or doctorates in the subject they taught).
The first step is for the several states to abolish the monopoly given to colleges of education to produce “qualified teachers” and permit, nay, encourage, the hiring of high school and even middle school faculty whose qualification consists in a masters or doctorate in the subject they will be teaching.
The success of those prepared for college work isn't unaccountable. These kids who are prepared were either “afterschooled” or homeschooled.
I have never met an academically successful child who wasn't either “afterschooled” or homeschooled.
In my clinic I have met ( likely) several thousand families. I almost always took the time to ask parents of successful children about their home habits and study habits primarily because I was looking for ideas to help with raising my own family.
I found **NO** difference between “afterschoolers” and homeschoolers regarding the attitudes by the parents toward education, their home routines, and the amount of time spent **in the home** at the kitchen table or at the child's desk.
Yes, my observations are anecdotal, but I seriously doubt that any “professional” educator with investigate the issue. If they did they might find that institutionalization in a government school has absolutely no benefit whatsoever since little or no learning happens in the classroom. It is the parents and the child who are doing the really hard work at home. The government school is merely sending home a tuition-free curriculum for the parents and child to follow.
If studied, we might learn that institutionalizing bright children actually artificially retards their academic and social development. They might be far better off with less institutionalization and with more time spent **in the home**!
By the way...My 3 homeschoolers entered college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. All finished all college core requirements and Calculus III by the age of 15. Two earned B.S. degrees in mathematics by the age of 18. The oldest was also very successful in his chosen career and attended college part-time in the evening. This year he will finish a masters in accounting at an age typical for his contemporaries.