[HPforGrownups] Hogwarts Upkeep

[Jenett]

No: HPFGUIDX 36463

On Wed, 13 Mar 2002, Felicia Rickmann wrote:

> Quality schooling costs, as muggle countries find who try to pinch
> pennies, so the reasoning still stands that to provide outstanding
> quality education, all or some of the fees must be paid by parents -
> with or without Wizarding Education Ministry assistance.

Depends. If you start with a large enough endowment, and can sufficiently 
keep costs down, you can do a lot more.

Bear in mind that there aren't exactly *loads* of other teaching positions 
out there. Someone who truly wants to teach is sort of stuck with one of a 
limited number of schools (and that assumes they want to leave the 
country, speak the appropriate language, and can find another school to 
hire them.) This will probably keep teaching salaries down to a 
room+board+stipend sort of level, rather than quite high cash salaries. 
(And even then, we only know about a relatively small number of faculty 
members. It takes relatively little cash, proportionate to most school 
budgets, to pay for 15-20 staff members, particularly if you also provide 
room and board.)

Also bear in mind that much of the actual labor that would need to take
place at most schools is done by (mostly) unsalaried help, and that the
actual building has long since been paid for, and (unlike modern schools
which need rewiring or expansion for new chemistry labs or whatever) don't
really need to deal with major renovation expenses for the sake of keeping
up with technology. It's also entirely possible that some of the food or
upkeep expenses in a normal school are dealt with through magical means -
we just don't know how that works.

There are a number of schools in the US which either partially or fully 
funded by endowments. The prep school I attended (one of the oldest in the 
US) had a generous financial aid policy, but more than that, contributed 
*over $5,000* to each student's tuition costs each year. Now, granted, 
said school has one of the largest endowments in the country - but an 
endowment that has been growing for a thousand years, supplemented by 
occaisional gifts or memorial funds or whatever would do quite adequately 
unless it were exceptionally poorly managed. (There are also a number of 
schools which are completely or nearly so to the student, and the money 
comes from endowments. They're usually not very well-known, however)

Given the other aspects of the school, I think it's perfectly likely they 
could deal with those things that needed money on that kind of basis 
($5,000 or so a student from endowment or perhaps the MoM). I don't think 
it's obvious that there have to be fees to pay - it may just be that the 
combination of how many kids the Weasleys have in school and the 
incidental expenses are what causes problems for the Weasleys, not any 
actual tuition payments. 

-Jenett