Of course it doesn’t cost 12-15K per child. Your tuition figure is a result of the yeshiva administration’s decision to make a “pay by income” system. Most yeshivos do this. If we assume that 50% of parents are going to ask for a tuition break, then we need to make up the money from the other parents. Raising the bar means that you are forced to pay for others unless you want to show your books. I think this above all else gets peoples’ ire up, especially since yeshivos are far from forthright about their own balance sheets.
Do the math – even if yeshivos pay great wages and have medium sized classes, cost per child can be kept to $7K or less. But they don’t pay great, and classes are often oversized. So tuition could be even less. Don’t argue with me about this until you can prove otherwise with numbers. Do the math. Anything on top of the actual per child cost is forced subsidy of other children. This is unfortunate because 1) Parents should told that they are subsidizing because of EMES 2) Parents should be told that they are subsidizing so that they will be able to count the amount of the subsidy as tax deductible and 3) Parents are forced to open up their books to the yeshiva administration even if they are willing to pay what should be considered full tuition.
In other words, since yennem is not paying tuition and you are forced to subsidize, you are forced to open your books even if you can pay what it costs for your child and no more.
My suggestion about revamping the current administration system (which I have posted about twice here) should be taken seriously as a way to reduce costs and bring honesty and Rabbinic oversight to our yeshivos. This would help with keeping yeshiva affordable and sustainable.