Joseph:
You wrote; “A side effect of this dynamic is that schools outside of Lakewood are shrinking as a result of young couples and families moving out to Lakewood.”
That is not the case at all. I challenge you to name a single yeshiva or girls school that is losing students due to the mobility to Lakewood. It is true that the cramming of students in the schools in the New York area is a contributing factor to families looking to live elsewhere, and Lakewood is hot right now. But there are no yeshivos suffering from enrollment drop in NY.
There are enough babies born in Lakewood every year to warrant the opening of a new school. The influx of young couples places an added burden. Yeshivos in NY are not hurting for applicants, and there are plenty of both boys and girls that will experience difficulty with acceptance in yeshivos this coming school year. Yes, there are other issues that are fodder for debate in the CR, such as rejections due to finances, the arbitrary rules of parents’ dress codes, etc. But space is an issue, and a very legitimate one. You cannot put 35 students in a class where the room size and the rebbe are capable of 25.