Magical education system

[vinnygp]

No: HPFGUIDX 40596

So, about the magical education system.  Does the middle-class 
wizarding family have an option besides sending their progeny to an 
expensive private school?  I don't know about the UK or Europe 
(although I live and work in Germany, I still haven't grasped the 
complex German education system), but in the United States, most 
everybody goes to the public school, an institution funded by the 
State.  All your books, passed through generations of foul-minded 
graffitti artists, are provided, free of charge.  The crowded classes 
are taught by underpaid State employees.  Smaller, smarter, less 
aggressive students are beat up by the large, savage children of the 
tobacco-chewing, Coor's Light-drinking, tin can-in-the-overgrown-yard-
in-front-of-the-double-wide-shooting, domestic-abusing redneck riff-
raff from the backwoods of the county (no bitterness here).  Apart 
from the crowding, since the entire county school system had fewer 
than 1,500 students, this was certainly my experience, but since I 
was from a family of six supported only by the wages of a State 
Policeman, another underpaid State employee (I sometimes picture my 
own house when I read about the Weasleys'), it was the best we could 
manage.

I wonder if the Wizarding World has something similar?  I mean, not 
everyone can go to a private boarding school.  Maybe the Ministry of 
Magic has a similar set-up.  Of course, it raises the question of 
whether or not the Ministry even collects taxes.  

What do you think a wizard's public school would be like?  Would they 
use the same bools as Hogwart's?  Would they get school wands?  What 
would the school buses be like?  How fondly I remember those great 
smelly yellow contraptions filled to capacity with loud children in a 
closed environment.

Whlie we're on the subject, what about elementary education?  There 
doesn't seem to be much general education going on at Hogwarts, i.e. 
reading and mathematics; it seems to be a big vocational school.  
They must go somewhere to learn how to read and write and do math?  
What do wizards do for education in the first ten years of their 
lives?  Homeschooling perhaps?  Nothing wrong with homeschooling, of 
course; I was homeschooled for the latter part of my education.  Or 
maybe that's where public schools come in.

And what about higher education or university? Is it normal to go 
straight from high (secondary) school to your job?  Look at Percy, in 
the Dept. of International Magical Cooperation with no degree in law 
or international relations or anything.  Where do wizards go to learn 
about, say, Magizoolology, to become dragon handlers like Charlie; or 
Education, to go on the board of school governors like Lucius Malfoy; 
where do Aurors or hit wizards go to learn their stuff?  
Correspondence courses?

And why does almost everybody work for the Ministry of Magic?  Is 
there no private sector?

OK, I'm done.

Vince