The Wizarding World: Expulsion & Hogwarts School

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 127633


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Donna" <donnawonna at w...> wrote:
> 
> "rockstar064":
> > I do not understand why, in the Wizarding World, expulsion 
> > from school results in a lifetime ban from using magic. ...


> Donna:
> 
> ...  Also, my understanding is Hogwarts is a "private" school where 
> the students are there by invitation only and their parents must pay 
> tuition for their children to go there.  

bboyminn:

You seem to be using the USA version of the terms 'Private' and
'Public' which is exactly the opposite of their meanig in the UK.

In the USA-
Public School - in a sense is a government school. 'Public' refers to
the funding of the school. Public Schools are funded by the public at
large through general tax revenue and more so by property taxes. For
the most part these are free schools open to all kids living within
the boundaries of the local tax/school district. Students outside the
local school district can be admitted, but must pay additional
tuition. Since school funding is greatly tied to Property Tax, it
helps explain why rich neighborhoods have nice rich schools and poor
neighborhood have poor schools.

Private Schools - are funded by the private individuals who send their
kids to that school. These school get little or no funding from the
government. Many of these schools are also maintained and funded by
benefactors, founder endowments, and alumni endowments.

Hogwarts, by USA definition, is a private school ('public' school in
the UK), but there is no indication or implication in any of the books
that students pay tuition. I have always speculated the Hogwarts was
originally funded by large endowments of land, buildings, and money
from the four original founders. After it's founding, citizen
benefactors and alumni endowments continued to donate money to the
school to support it and keep it running. If the original founders
each had substantial fortunes, and those fortunes were invested wisely
over the last thousand years, through investments and compound
interest, the school could have a substantial stash of hard cash.

I have futher speculated in the past, that a substantial number of the
wizards who sit on the School Board of Governors represent the largest
financial contributors to Hogwarts school. They are given seats on the
Board so that they can make sure their donated money, and the rest of
Hogwarts investments are managed properly to insure the school
continued existance.

Because of this, the Ministry has limited say in the running of the
school. However, it is likely that the Ministry sets the OWL and NEWT
standards, and controls the testing authority that administers those
tests. Further, just as in the real world, since the Ministry is the
government and they have control of the legislative and legal system,
they do have the power to pass law that effect the school. Just as in
real life, the government can pass laws the effect private schools.


> Donna:
>
>If that is the case, what about the magical children that either are
not invited to attend Hogwarts or whose parents can't afford the
tuition?  Are those children banned for life from not using magic? 
Are there "public" schools for magical children?
> 
> Donna

bboyminn:

According to JKR all children who display magical essense before the
age of eleven are invited to the school without exception. Those
invited, however, are free to decline the invitation. 

Since, as you can see from the section above, I believe the school is
supported by a combination of the Founder's original endowment and the
continued endowments from others, there is no question of being able
to afford going to school. In this sense, Hogwarts is more like a
charity school; those who qualify are given their education for free.

>From our previous discussion, it seems that many of the UK's finest
schools were started as 'charity' schools. The purpose of the paying
students was to support the presents of a significant number of
non-paying poor students. While many of these school have gone on to
become the prestigious and expensive school in the UK, they still take
in the required number of charity students. Although, they aren't
called charity student, there's another name for them but I can't
remember what it is.

As far as magic, in Hagrid's case, his magical education was stopped
before he had his qualifications, and his wand was broken. So, I'm not
so sure that Hagrid is banned from doing magic, he is banned from
having and using a wand which in effect is the same as a ban on most
magic.

Keep in mind the seriousness of the crime Hagrid was associated with.
Several students were injured and one student died. That's no small
thing. Hagrid was very very lucky to get off as easy as he did. I
think a big part of his easy sentence was that everyone involved knew
if they thought too hard or looked too deep they would see that it was
absurd to think that what happened was caused by Hagrid and his
Spider. They had a scapegoat whose conviction appeased the masses, and
got the Daily Prophet off their backs, plus put both the school and
the government back in a good light, and that is all they were truly
concerned with. As long as the attacks had stopped, they were ready to
forget about it and move on; no point letting the facts get in the way.

Also, I think expulsion is very rare. The teachers and headmaster hold
the threat of expulsion over the students heads as a way of
controlling them and maintaining order in the school, but it would
really take something dreadfully extreme to get a student expelled.

Under other circumstance, say for example, a student left the school
after their third year. Once they were of age, there would be nothing
to stop them from using magic or owning a wand. Hagrid was restricted
by an official sanction against him. What has to happen now for Hagrid
to be a full wand-carrying wizard, is for that official sanction to be
/officially/ overturned.

Just a few thoughts.

Steve/bboyminn