Avram > than if the benefits help Jews learn Torah than they are fulfilling their purpose even in eyes of the government
I do not think it is kosher to take someone else’s money and decide on our own what is a better way to spend it. This is no different, conceptually, from the communist shitah that they know better than the property owners how to manage it. Government provide funds for English textbooks, and we should take those. They provide transportation and let’s take it, and government has no hesaron if students have Torah classes in addition to English, as cost of transportation is the same. Government gives out child credit, so we can take it. This is different from government (presumably reflecting common sentiment) provide funds to help poor people, and we say, fine, we are not gonna working and use those funds. I do realize there is some politics involved here and, maybe, there are some people who will be happy for everyone to get “helped” but, in my – possibly biased – estimate, most people do not support “welfare volunteers”.
I looked up comments to a WSJ OpEd responding to the NYT article. A Cathlic writer is generally sympathetic to yeshivas and so are many comments. Putting aside occasional anti-semites, who, as you are saying, are always happy to blame Jews and occasional philo-semites, who are happy to give money to Jews, most other comments revolve around getting government funds and performing what is required by that. Most are fine with Jews living their own self-sufficient life and most are not fine with whole communities receiving a lot of government funds to support their own lifestyle.
The article also mentions a relevant Supreme case in 1970s where Amish got away with less number of years at school, saying that their kids work and do not need calculus. Part of the decision looks at the facts – that Amish community is decent and self-sufficient.