The Little I know:
You are right, no one is bashing A school. They are just bashing a whole town.
I am not hiding my head in the sand and saying that there are no problems with the school system. But to pick an example so radical that it almost certainly didn’t happen – 100 parents called to complain that they accepted a kid with an 80 average and all their kids got 90s (OK so I am exaggerating) or they asked on the application whether I wore a blue shirt, etc. is not doing any of the kids without a school a service. It just creates a lot of hype about things that are NOT the issue. I would say that every high school in Lakewood, including the ones with the reputation of high academic standards, have a mix of all scholastic levels and work very hard to help these students scholastically, tutoring, modified testing, etc.
At the risk of sounding like NASAI, The biggest issue in terms of Lakewood schools are not the elitist attitude but the population boom that the existing schools cannot keep up with. And when any regular person whose kid has no issues tells you they couldn’t get their kid into school in Lakewood, ask them how many of the 20-30 elementary schools that exist THEY were willing to consider. To hear people talk, THEY are entitled to say that a school is not the right crown for them but for a school to say that about THEM is an outrage. They can say I would NEVER send my kid to a newer school, but for a school that has been around for 15 years to say that after siblings and teachers kids they are full is terrible? And if the school has a certain standard in terms of dress, internet use etc. then how DARE they use their standards to reject my Tayreh yiddeshe Kind. Why should anyone presume that THEY should take the responsibility for their child and change the way they dress, watch, connect?!
Are there kids who can’t get into school? Yes. Is it a problem? Yes But to suggest that the root of the problem is any schools elitist, gavadik attitude without admitting that there are real issues behind most of the refusals will not to anything to solve the problem or lead to any chance of reasonable dialog on the issue