Regarding the quality of secular studies in yeshivas vs. public schools, I was making an apples-to-apples comparison. You certainly can’t compare the quality of education in a typical yeshiva to that in a typical NYC public school…
We do have other values, so secular education may not be the absolute best it could be, but it exceeds the average and certainly exceeds any minimum standards , so there’s no reason to exclude yeshiva provided secular education from being considered a legitimate basic expense. The fact that you mention how we value education as a reason to exclude it is somewhat ironic, don’t you think?