Mezonos Maven-
You’re asking me questions about a subject I don’t know well.
(that’s just a disclaimer, I’ll still try to answer them.)
I don’t either understand the large discrepancy in tuition between litvish and chasidish yeshivas.
From what I was told, yeshiva is a community obligation among chasidim. The Rebbe gives a well-to-do community members a number, and that’s what he donates.
Perhaps it is explained by the costs of providing English/Secular studies. Maybe the MO schools put the most money into that, the litvish less but still more than the chasidish.
ALl of the followng are factors:
-Lower-salaried principals, administrators, and teachers
-Larger class sizes
-Smaller, less modern, less frequently maintained buildings
-The quality of the lunches and cooks
-“Optional” items: sports coaches and fields, music teachers, trips, etc.
What if parents are unemployed? Or the parents jobs don’t even come anywhere near paying the tuition. Are the children refused entry to the yeshiva or even thrown out of the yeshiva??
I know of at least one instance where a child had to go to public school, but I know of others where the school allowed the parents to work off the debt years after the child graduated.
Administrators aren’t bad people, and they are caught between parents who are truly unable to afford tuition and staff that must be paid.