I agree with Bear; I don't think it's necessary for a child to be enrolled in school to receive the socialization he/she needs. They can socialize in church, in organized play groups, with other family members their age, etc., etc. In fact, there are actually homeschool play groups out there, to address this very issue.
Homeschooling might not be necessary everywhere, but here in the state we live in, our standardized test scores are almost the lowest in the United States. (In fact, they might be the lowest.) So for us, I don't think it's in our children's best interests to send them to public school anymore. The bottom line for us is, our public schools can no longer prepare our children for college.