Lesschumrus: I never said that yeshiva students will drop out of school. All that will happen is that the 8,000 yeshiva student Approx 30% live within 2.5 miles of the school will have to be driven to school resulting in traffic jam and pollution. The 4,000 puplic school students approx. 50% live within 2.5 miles of the school who are mostly lower income may have to walk to school they are the ones who will drop out. even if they come they will be so tired they will fall a sleep in class. The reason we have school lunch program is so they will have a full stomache and be able to learn better
1: Lakewood (Boruch Hashem) probably has a decreased property tax base due to the large number of shuls, yeshivos and non for profits in the area, which reduces the funds available to bus Yeshiva students.
2: With the tax base not keeping up with the population explosion (Boruch Hashem), Lakewood should expect to have fewer and fewer non-mandated services without a similar tax hike. There is just no way to pay for busing for the thousands of students, even if they were in public school.
3: Parents could decide to hire a bus service to substitute for non-mandated busing, if they so desire. They either pay for it with tax dollars, carpool gas and time, or hire someone. Either way, there is no free lunch.