Honolulu (AP) – After the Wasserpolo practice at her school on a hill with a view of the Honolulu harbor Hafen, astynical Kapua Ong at the sunset.
“I am proud of myself because I got on because not everyone is accepted,” said Kapua, 14, a newcomer to the Kamehameha Schools, a competitive private school with affordable lessons, the local Hawaiians. “I am only grateful that I can have these options.”
Kapua was just a baby when her parents entered the prerequisites for their acceptance at school by adding a genealogy database to details about their Hawaiian Hawaii ancestors. As an incoming seventh grader, she also made an approval test and emphasized her skills and liquids in the Hawaiian language in Kung Fu.
The Kamhameha schools indicate indigenous people in Hawaii with a restriction: “To the legally permissible scope.”
A campaign is in progress to test the legality of politics and prevent Kamehameha from preferring Hawaiians, part of a movement to expand the legal definition of racial discrimination in education. Conservative activists were encouraged by a judgment of the Supreme Court against positive measures in college approval and by the War of the Trump government against diversity, justice and inclusion. Now they are aimed at scholarships, academic programs and admission guidelines that are directly or indirectly connected to the breed.
Students for fair approvals under the direction of Edward Blum, a leading opponent of positive measures, have established a website this month that satisfied themselves in court for the challenge of the Kamhameha’s admission directive. “It is essentially impossible that a non -local Hawaiian student in Kamehameha will be approved,” says the website.
Alumni, parents and local managers are calling for the private school system with a foundation worth more than 15 billion US dollars -greater than most universities -to fight politics.
“I hope that you will hire a good lawyer, build a good case,” said Andria Tupola, graduate from 1998 and member of the city council of Honolulu. She says the school helped her to establish a stronger connection to Hawaiian culture.
Participation in Kamhameha can also be life -changing. The local Hawaiian community is fighting with higher poverty and detention rates, so that Hawaiian children may have disadvantages. Entry in Kamehameha offers a chance for high-quality private school education-with limitless opportunities, first-class institutions and Hawaiian cultural values.
Together with a breathtaking octopus, the extensive Honolulu campus has the top equipment-a huge pool, a buffet lunch, an athlete laundry service and a terrain decorated with local plants. An annual, sophisticated Hawaiian song competition between the high school courses is broadcast on local television.
The will of a Hawaiian princess
Kamhameha Schools was founded by the will by Bernice Pauahi Bishi, the great -granddaughter of King Kamehameha I. When she died in 1884, her will aimed at founding schools that local Hawaiians prefer. The foundation also supports scholarships for other private schools and activities in the community.
Last year, more than 5,400 students enrolled at three Kamehamehaha locations to Oahu, Maui and Big Island.
Every year the number of applications exceeds the number of rooms depending on the campus and grade by up to 1 to 1, according to the Kamhamehaha website.
There is an understanding of the residents of Hawaii that only students with Hawaiian blood are approved. Many see politics as a way to remedy differences from the US colonization and the fall of the Hawaiian kingdom of 1893 by a group of American business people.
Sterling Wong, a Kamhameha spokesman, declined to say how many non-Hawaiian students were approved.
Kalani Rosell was the first non-Hawaiian in 2007 to complete Maui Kamhamehahen Schools. His acceptance criticized keen criticism from Hawaiians. The school said he was selected after a list of qualified Hawaiian students was exhausted.
According to a decision by the 9th US Court of Appeal from 2005, more than 15,000 people protested politics to restrict admission to Hawaiians and to decide that they had violated federal law. Kamhameha was looking for a repetition.
The following year, the court confirmed the directive. Kamhameha later settled with the family of the White Student, who brought the case when he was refused to admit.
“We expected that our almost 140-year-old admission policy, which prefers local Hawaiian children, will be questioned again,” said Kamhameha-Freuhänder in a statement. “We are confident that our politics matched the established law.”
“Heavy Hitter” takes over the Hawaiian schools
When Kekoa Kealoha, who graduated in 2003, heard about the school against the school, he was shocked to hear that she was led by “someone like a real heavy bat”.
Students for fair approvals sued Harvard and the University of North Carolina in cases that led to the decision of the Supreme Court of the Supreme Court of 2023, who held Colleges to consider the breed in the event of approval decisions.
Blum, a former stockbroker, has since expanded his opposition to racial preferences throughout the education, which is powered by the struggle of President Donald Trump against Dei.
Blum, which was reached by the Associated Press, said he was on the road and asked written questions. Then he didn’t answer.
Blum’s group will probably argue that Kamhamehah policy will probably survive the strongest form of constitutional check because it has an absolute racial approval requirement, said John Tehranian, professor at the Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles.
Kamehameha could counteract that his policy is not racial, but a classification based on political status and uses cases that allow government programs for American indigenous people, he said.
Blum’s group follows everything that is related to breed and “sees what sticks is,” said Natasha Warikoo, professor at Tufts University, who wrote a book about positive actions.
Although the decision of the Supreme Court focused on the university’s approvals, conservative increasingly K-12 schools and admission factors, which they regard them as “voting rights” for breed, including family income and neighborhood.
For example, the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation submitted a lawsuit in July that questioned an approval guideline at the elite examination schools of the Boston Public Schools, which gives the students additional points if they are from areas with lower income.
Hawaiian Republicans calls the campaign “racist”
When Blum started his campaign against Kamhameha, people called Brenton Awa, a Senator of the Hawaiian Republican state.
Awa did not come to Kamehameha and completed a public school, but he still called Blum. When the flower did not return, AWA and another Republican flew to the east coast to find it.
“If someone had a chance of discussion, we would be,” said Awa.
The address of Arlington, Virginia, led the duo to a mailbox. They went to an office for Blum’s lawyers, but were not lucky. So they met with Republicans in Washington to clarify them about Kamhamha’s mission.
“Anyone who looks at Kamhamehaums with this type of initiative and intention is racist,” said Awa.
Moving to Hawaii for the “life -changing” school
Kona Purdy and his family withdrew to Hawaii in 2021, partly because his daughter was accepted into Kamehameha. The family had moved to Las Vegas and came to many Hawaiians who could no longer afford to live on the islands.
They were forced to return to Vegas in 2023 when they lost their apartment. “We had thought about leaving her … so that she could stay at school,” said Purdy. “It was life -changing.”
Kamehameha has only charged about $ 100 in tuition fees.
The family returned to Hawaii in June. Purdy’s daughter is now a seventh grader at a public school.
She will apply to Kamehameha next year, in the hope of joining the High School again.
“Hopefully the admission guideline is still available, so it has the best shot,” said Purdy.
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Collin Binkley, the author of the Associated Press Education, contributed.
