re Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy

[deborahhbbrd]

No: HPFGUIDX 147471

Olivierfouquet raises the point of how Hogwarts is funded. Presumably
it would be in the Ministry's interests to keep it afloat, and the
same with St Mungo's. However, the school my son attended might just
shed some light.

It is about a hundred years old. Compared to Hogwarts, a mere mayfly.
Boys only, day pupils and some boarders. Lots of sports, clubs, music
and drama ... which means, lots of trips around town and beyond in
hired buses. Trips, also, to national drama festivals, cricket and
rugby weeks etc. It is funded by the local (provincial) education
authority at a flat rate of not very much at all per child, and one
pays considerable top-up fees which go to paying additional staff,
thereby keeping class sizes down. Now on to Hogwarts! 

The extras - all the trips, the laboratory equipment, the sport
(except for the clothes, bats and balls etc), the library and computer
facilities, the duplicated notes - are all paid for out of the
school's investments, as are various prizes and awards. These come
from Old Boys who have remembered the place in their wills, mostly, or
just made bequests of some kind while still alive. Out of gratitude
... So, can we imagine that in a society where a Lucius Malfoy can
make himself famous and popular by giving well targeted donations,
some more moral people would like to help their old school along? It
seems more than likely; and if Pretoria Boys High can look back on the
proceeds of a mere century, what might Hogwarts not have in its
Gringotts vault after a millennium? Indeed, it could be even better
off than expected, as it seems that one way in which the wizarding
world is ahead of our own is that witches have had important and well
paid jobs for centuries. (Our local girls' school requires payment for
extras. Old Girls did not have disposable incomes until recently!)

Perhaps, too, deserving cases like the Weasleys might get, not exactly
bulk discounts, but some kind of subvention with the fees?

Deborah, enjoying the nuts and bolts and wishing we got more little
snippets of information here and there. Or that we could read
Hogwarts, A History!