My mother once gave me a talk about how their should be "free religious education for Jewish children!" Name one religious organization that does that? Hebrew school teachers need to eat too. It seems to me that not wanting to pay a going rate for religious education is one of the reasons we kept winding up in Chabad's court.
Rabbi Fried was funding the 8th St. Shul to the tune of about $900 a month just in terms of the electricity. I don't know what other expenses he incurred.
The yeshivas were threatening Rabbi Isaac Fried to ban his children from going to their institutions unless he paid up in full. He didn't have any kind of pull when it came to his own children. Eventually, he gave in and paid up the tuition bills. So much for free Jewish education in Boro Park and Flatbush.