Wolf, I definitely both agree with you and sympathize with you! and I’m sure that Joseph does too.
It seems that my supposition was correct.
To be “dan l’kaf zchus” the school, they probably have a reason for the policy – maybe the things that were mentioned by other posters, that they have a lot of financial issues and need to make sure that people really need the discount.
It sounds like this whole topic is very complicated and it would be nice if someone could come up with a solution. But maybe it’s one of those issues that has no solution (other than davening of course).