ames,
Perhaps you never realized that not all frum kids can go to yeshiva. A frum man in our community had to send his kids to the local public school because the kids had learning disabilities that the yeshivas wanted nothing to do with. Speak to anyone who went to public schools in the past and they will tell you what it feels like to be one of a few Jews in a class and the pressure to conform when their holidays came and they recited prayers in class.