Personal faculty for Native Hawaiians vows to defend admissions coverage

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER, Related Press

HONOLULU (AP) — After water polo observe at her faculty atop a hill overlooking Honolulu Harbor, Kapua Ong marvels on the sundown.

“I do really feel pleased with myself for getting in as a result of not everybody will get accepted,” mentioned Kapua, 14, a freshman at Kamehameha Colleges, a aggressive non-public faculty with reasonably priced tuition that offers choice to Native Hawaiians. “I’m simply, like, grateful for with the ability to have these alternatives.”

Kapua was only a child when her mother and father set the stage for her acceptance on the faculty by including particulars of her Native Hawaiian ancestry to a family tree database. As an incoming seventh grader, she additionally took an admissions take a look at and highlighted her kung fu abilities and fluency in Hawaiian language.

Kamehameha Colleges offers admissions choice to the Indigenous folks of Hawaii, with a caveat: “to the extent permitted by regulation.”

A marketing campaign is underway to check the coverage’s legality and cease Kamehameha from favoring Hawaiians, a part of a motion to increase the authorized definition of racial discrimination in schooling. Conservative activists have been emboldened by a Supreme Court docket ruling in opposition to affirmative motion in school admissions and by the Trump administration’s battle in opposition to range, fairness and inclusion. Now, they’re focusing on scholarships, educational applications and admissions insurance policies tied straight or not directly to race.

College students for Honest Admissions, led by Edward Blum, a number one opponent of affirmative motion, arrange a web site this month vowing to problem Kamehameha’s admissions coverage in court docket. “It’s basically not possible for a non-Native Hawaiian pupil to be admitted to Kamehameha,” the location says.

Alumni, mother and father and native leaders are urging the non-public faculty system with an endowment valued at greater than $15 billion — bigger than most universities — to combat to defend the coverage.

“I’m hoping they rent a superb lawyer, construct a superb case,” mentioned Andria Tupola, a 1998 graduate and a member of the Honolulu Metropolis Council. She says the varsity helped her construct a stronger connection to Hawaiian tradition.

Attending Kamehameha can be life-changing. The Native Hawaiian group struggles with larger charges of poverty and incarceration, so Hawaiian youngsters might have instructional disadvantages. Admission to Kamehameha affords an opportunity for high quality non-public faculty schooling — with boundless alternatives, first-class services and Hawaiian cultural values.

Together with a panoramic ocean view, the sprawling Honolulu campus boasts prime facilities — an Olympic-sized pool, buffet lunches, athlete laundry service and grounds adorned with native crops. An annual, elaborate Hawaiian track contest between highschool courses is broadcast on native TV.

A Hawaiian princess’s will

Kamehameha Colleges was based by the need of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the great-granddaughter of King Kamehameha I. When she died in 1884, her will directed the institution of faculties that give choice to Native Hawaiians. The endowment additionally helps scholarships to different non-public colleges, plus group actions.

Final yr, greater than 5,400 college students enrolled throughout three Kamehameha campuses on Oahu, Maui and the Large Island.

Every year, the variety of functions exceeds the variety of areas by as a lot as 17 to 1, relying on the campus and grade, the Kamehameha web site says.

There’s an understanding amongst Hawaii residents that solely college students with Hawaiian blood shall be admitted. Many see the coverage as a approach to treatment disparities stemming from U.S. colonization and the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by a gaggle of American businessmen.

Sterling Wong, a Kamehameha spokesperson, declined to say what number of non-Hawaiian college students have been admitted.

Kalani Rosell was the primary non-Hawaiian to graduate from Kamehameha Colleges Maui in 2007. His acceptance drew sharp criticism from Hawaiians. The varsity mentioned he had been chosen after an inventory of certified Hawaiian college students had been exhausted.

Greater than 15,000 folks protested after a 2005 ruling by a panel of the ninth U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals struck down the coverage of proscribing admission to Hawaiians, ruling it violated federal civil rights regulation. Kamehameha sought a rehearing.

The next yr, the court docket upheld the coverage. Kamehameha later settled with the household of the white pupil who introduced the case when he was denied admission.

“We anticipated that our almost 140-year-old admissions coverage, offering choice to Native Hawaiian youngsters, would once more be challenged,” Kamehameha trustees mentioned in a press release. “We’re assured that our coverage aligns with established regulation.”

‘Heavy hitter’ takes on the Hawaiian colleges

When Kekoa Kealoha, who graduated in 2003, heard in regards to the marketing campaign in opposition to the varsity, he was shocked to listen to it was led by “any individual who was, like, an actual heavy hitter.”

College students for Honest Admissions sued Harvard and the College of North Carolina in circumstances that led to the landmark 2023 Supreme Court docket determination barring faculties from contemplating race in admissions selections.

Blum, a former stockbroker, has since expanded his opposition to racial preferences all through schooling, fueled by President Donald Trump’s combat in opposition to DEI.

Reached by The Related Press, Blum mentioned he was touring and requested for written questions. Then, he didn’t reply.

Blum’s group in all probability will argue the Kamehameha coverage is unlikely to outlive the strongest type of constitutional overview as a result of it has an absolute race-based requirement for admissions, mentioned John Tehranian, a professor at Southwestern Legislation Faculty in Los Angeles.

Kamehameha might counter that its coverage isn’t race-based, however a classification primarily based on political standing, drawing on circumstances that permit authorities applications for Native People, he mentioned.

Blum’s group goes after something associated to race and “seeing what sticks,” mentioned Natasha Warikoo, a professor at Tufts College, who wrote a guide about affirmative motion.

Although the Supreme Court docket determination targeted on college admissions, conservatives have more and more focused Ok-12 colleges, together with admissions components they take into account “proxies” for race, together with household earnings and neighborhood.

For example, in July, the conservative Pacific Authorized Basis filed a lawsuit difficult an admissions coverage at Boston Public Colleges’ elite examination colleges that offers college students extra factors in the event that they’re from lower-income areas.

Hawaiian Republican calls marketing campaign ‘racist’

When Blum launched his marketing campaign in opposition to Kamehameha, folks began calling Brenton Awa, a Hawaiian Republican state senator.

Awa didn’t get into Kamehameha and graduated from a public faculty, however he referred to as Blum anyway. When Blum didn’t name again, Awa and one other Republican flew to the East Coast to seek out him.

“If anyone had an opportunity at dialogue, it might be us,” Awa mentioned.

The Arlington, Virginia, deal with on the web site led the duo to only a mailbox. They went to an workplace for Blum’s attorneys however had no luck. So that they met with Republicans in Washington to coach them about Kamehameha’s mission.

“Anyone going after Kamehameha Colleges with this type of initiative and intention, to us that’s racist,” Awa mentioned.

Shifting to Hawaii for ‘life-changing’ faculty

Kona Purdy and his household moved again to Hawaii in 2021, partly as a result of his daughter was accepted to Kamehameha. The household had moved to Las Vegas, becoming a member of many Hawaiians who might now not afford to dwell within the islands.

They have been pressured to maneuver again to Vegas in 2023 after they misplaced their housing. “We had thought-about leaving her … in order that she might keep within the faculty,” Purdy mentioned. “It was life-changing.”

Kamehameha solely charged the household about $100 in tuition.

The household returned to Hawaii in June. Purdy’s daughter is now a seventh grader at a public faculty.

She’s going to apply to Kamehameha subsequent yr, hoping to rejoin for highschool.

“Hopefully, the admissions coverage continues to be in place so she has one of the best shot,” Purdy mentioned.

Related Press schooling author Collin Binkley contributed.

Initially Printed: September 16, 2025 at 9:06 AM PDT