Is Kamehameha School Racist?

Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0634 hrs

Kamehameha School is in a lot of hot water over their admission policy, which requires students to be at least partly Hawaiian (by blood, not by having been born in the state).

Is it racist?

I say no. A lot of information isn't making its way on to the news; something that doesn't surprise me at all. Here's the deal: way back when, Hawaiian queen Bernice Pauahi Bishop set up a trust (to be run by the Bishop Estate Trustees, which is a whole different scandal) that was to be spent specifically on education, with a "preference" toward Hawaiians. Kamehameha is a private school and, to the best of my knowledge, receives no state or federal funding. Just as my school was allowed to preach Christianity, Kamehameha School is allowed to say that non-Hawaiians cannot attend their school.

This is a policy that has been in place for over one hundred years. While the argument could be made that this is an dated and out-of-touch policy, I think that everyone is missing the obvious solution. Bishop's will does not state that non-Hawaiians cannot attend (it does say that the board of trustees can regulate the admissions process, and to ensure that Hawaiians have been getting "preference", that's exactly what they've been doing), so go ahead and let non-Hawaiians in, just with a slightly different set of rules.

I don't know what tuition is like for the Hawaiian students who are able to attend, but it seems to me that non-Hawaiian students should be able to attend, but the Bishop Estate shouldn't have to pay for it. Non-Hawaiians would just have to pay a lot more in tuition, which, if they want to attend a private school in Hawaii, they would have to do anyway.