Hogwarts Tuition

[blpurdom]

No: HPFGUIDX 33826

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Jennifer Boggess Ramon <boggles at e...> 
wrote:
   > At 8:27 PM +0000 1/16/02, Hollydaze wrote:
> >This is an edited copy of two posts I sent to another HP site 
> >about why I feel that Hogwarts does not require tuition and is a 
> >public school:
> >
> >(During this post I refer to Public and Private schools as 
> >Americans would -even though I'm British- to avoid confusion)
> 
> I think it's actually roughly equivalent to the Governor's 
> Academies here in the US - funded by the government, but at a 
> higher level than the local school districts, you pay for supplies 
> and some of your board but not tuition or rooming, you live at the 
> school except for holidays.  I suspect that most of its funding 
> comes from an initial endowment by the Founders, well-managed by 
> the Board of Directors.

I think the tuition situation is slightly different than everybody 
pays or no one pays.  Hagrid clearly refers to removing enough money 
from Harry's vault to pay for a few terms.  And the Weasleys 
certainly had a lot of children to put through school; the year 
Ginny started, they had five.  And let's not forget that Tom Riddle 
lived in an orphanage.

I think that it's most likely that there's a sliding scale for 
tuition, based upon what each family can afford.  And if the person 
in question has no money (Riddle) then they are on full 
scholarship.  (And Riddle must have needed help purchasing his 
supplies and robes, as well.)  A sliding scale would certainly 
explain how the Weasleys afforded school for their five younger 
children.  (They obviously made use of the hand-me-down system to 
save money on supplies.)  Harry isn't in the position of needing 
financial assistance for his tuition or supplies because he has that 
vault of gold.  I don't believe the Board of Governors offers 
assistance to students who can afford to pay.

--Barb

Chapter 14 of the Last Temptation is up...Are you tempted?
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