HONOLULU
A wealthy private school created exclusively for Hawaii’s indigenous people may be forced to admit non-Hawaiians if it loses a legal challenge.
Fifteen judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments today in San Francisco over whether the Kamehameha Schools can continue to limit enrollment to Native Hawaiians.
The case is an important test of racial preference programs in school admissions.
While the courts have generally ruled against favoritism in education based on race, the Kamehameha case is different in that the school was founded based on the will of a Hawaiian princess and doesn’t receive federal funding.
“Her whole intent was to provide a means for educating her people so they could compete in a society that was changing so quickly,” says Kekoa Paulsen, a spokesman for Kamehameha Schools. “We are providing a remedy for a … people in their own homeland who are suffering.”
Hawaii was an independent kingdom until the United States backed the overthrow of the country’s leaders in 1893. It eventually became a U.S. territory and was made a state in 1959.
