And at a younger age, no doubt:
A much-anticipated report from the largest and longest-running study of American child care has found that keeping a preschooler in a day care center for a year or more increased the likelihood that the child would become disruptive in class — and that the effect persisted through the sixth grade.
The effect was slight, and well within the normal range for healthy children, the researchers found. And as expected, parents’ guidance and their genes had by far the strongest influence on how children behaved.
But the finding held up regardless of the child’s sex or family income, and regardless of the quality of the day care center. With more than two million American preschoolers attending day care, the increased disruptiveness very likely contributes to the load on teachers who must manage large classrooms, the authors argue.
I think we’re getting close to the point where it could be demonstrated that putting your child in public school led directly to devil worship and cannibalism and complacent parents would still argue that a) their local school is excellent and has some really great teachers, b) Satan isn’t really all that bad, and c) at least the kids are getting some protein in their diet.