I have said the same as Redleg. Find a way to rent a larger building, and put one school in each wing or each floor. They could split rent and utilities.
When parents don’t pay, they shouldn’t embarrass the kids. Let all children to take the test, and hand out all envelopes at the end, with either an admission card or a bill. Split children into various rooms, some that have testing and some don’t, so that kids aren’t noticing everyone who isn’t there).
I don’t blame the schools. They run a tight budget, and need every penny that the parents agreed to. When they don’t receive it, hard working teachers can’t get paid (risk losing their home/ car/ children’s tuition), and eventually the school may fold. 2 schools in Lakewood recently closed for funding issues. This didn’t just hurt the families who couldn’t pay. Now the families that paid full tuition are scrambling to get their daughters into a new school, teachers are looking for new jobs, etc.
If you couldn’t pay rent or a car payment, they would take away your home/ car. If you were to eat groceries or put on store clothes and not pay when you leave, it’s stealing. And it’s hard, because if you sit down and add up the cost of rent with utilities, food, car/ bus, expenses (clothes/ medical), and 4 tuitions, you’ll realize that it’s unaffordable, but your child can’t be uneducated because of that. And too much has to change for people to fix the system.