Admission to the elite school is first granted to all qualified Hawaiian students, and non-Hawaiians may be admitted if there are openings left available. Only one in eight eligible applicants get in, and tuition costs are 60 percent subsidized.
Out of 5,400 students enrolled at the school’s three campuses, only two students do not have Hawaiian ancestry. One of those students initially claimed he was Hawaiian, but his acceptance into the school was rescinded when he couldn’t prove his bloodline. He was later admitted to the school as the result of a legal settlement.
Attorneys for Kamehameha plan to argue that their admissions policy should be permitted to comply with the wishes of the princess’ will and to help remedy some of the wrongs committed during and after the U.S.-backed overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom, Paulsen says.
“The lands that support Kamehameha Schools ... are designated for a certain set of beneficiaries, and the beneficiaries in this case are the children of Native Hawaiian ancestry,” adds Jon Van Dyke, a University of Hawaii law professor who consulted for the school. “The Native Hawaiian people have a great need for education. They are still at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.”
A lawyer for the White students counters that claim by saying the school’s history isn’t relevant to the issue of fundamental fairness.
“You have the school saying, ‘Yeah, we discriminate by race, we admit that,’” says John Goemans. “What the hell? That isn’t America.”
— Associated Press If this is a private institution funded by an estate, how can the state of Hawaii interfere?
Reader comments on this story:
-D. Shipley
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
