Talk:Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Magic/Money

I would dispute the following:

though the amount of control the Ministry seems to exert over Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix would suggest significant financial support for school operations from the Ministry

It suggests nothing of the kind.

It does not rule it out, of course, theoretically. But the Ministry is here clearly using precisely its power of being the Government (and also the Legislative); they never claim anything else, and noone else claims anything else. (Let's not bring the prejudice in here that the government can only control what it funds while free enterprises necessarily have free reign. I know that this rumour has been around for some time in, say, the United States or its conservative sections; but there is nothing to it. Governments expect to be obeyed because they are the government; whether they give money or no. Or are cauldron-makers funded by the Ministry because Percy Weasley tells them how thick their cauldrons have to be?)

As a matter of fact, the facts seem to suggest the contrary. If the Ministry did give the major part of financial support to Hogwarts, it would not be necessary but certainly very likely for them to have at least a major (regular!) role in the choice of Headmaster. Perhaps for the very important decisions (such as the appointment of a teacher) the Headmaster would, in addition, have to get the okay of the Ministry. But nothing of the kind. The Headmaster is appointed by the Board of Governors, the Ministry has no role in that (as Lucius Malfoy says - but here, for once, we have no reason to believe he was telling a falsehood: he says so in the presence of Dumbledore and Fudge, and none of the two contradict him). Most decisions, even the appointment of teachers, are the responsibility of the Headmaster alone, with some very few referred to the Board of Governors. The emergency-decree style in which Fudge usurps these powers, for a time, and on an exceptionary basis, does not disprove this but proves it; if he had had them to begin with, no need to issue decrees in the first place.

What is organized by the Ministry, though, is the Apparition course and also, apparently, the OWL examination.

( - The most natural assumption when four powerful and presumably wealthy loremasters in the Middle Ages set up a school out of apparently charitable motives [though perhaps not so charitable in S. Slytherin's case] is that they set up a Foundation and equip it with a large fortune, providing some mechanism to find Governors for a Board, perhaps in large part from the students' parents; the foundation would then would pay the teachers and also help needy students. It is true, however, that this would, at least somewhat, require the institution of interest which we do not see in the wizarding world.)--2001:A61:2091:4101:1CF2:E4A5:20A5:132A (discuss) 00:49, 15 October 2017 (UTC)


 * Hard to determine how to express this succinctly, but I have given it my best shot... Chazz (talk) 01:05, 15 October 2017 (UTC)