How a Legacy of Hawaiian Preservation is Being Met with Claims of Discrimination

Photo Via New York Times

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Kamehameha Schools (KS) is a highly selective private school system in Hawaii made up of three K-12 schools as well as 30 preschools. The school system is well known for its mission to serve and prioritize Native Hawaiian students, and for its massive endowment of 15.2 billion dollars, much of it coming from its founder, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. Bishop had a desire to improve the well-being of her people during a time of chaos and destruction. 

After the introduction of foreign diseases such as smallpox, measles, and influenza due to Western contact, the Hawaiian population decreased significantly. In the early 19th century, “Hawaiians suffered a population collapse of nearly 90 percent in less than 70 years.” Apart from the widespread disease, Native Hawaiian society was also westernized when the Kingdom was illegally overthrown in 1893 and eventually annexed in 1898. From 1896 until 1986, the use of Native Hawaiian languages was banned in educational institutions.

As Bishop witnessed the decline of her Kingdom’s population, she established a land trust through her estate with hopes of educating and supporting her people with what later became Kamehameha Schools. Although she passed away just three years before seeing her vision come to life, the schools have since strived to equip Native Hawaiian students with a deep understanding of their heritage, something that she outlined in her will.

Kamehameha Schools has a highly selective admissions policy, stating that they keep “Pauahi’s wishes [in mind, giving] preference to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry to the extent permitted by law,” although non-Hawaiians are welcome to apply. To be considered as a Native Hawaiian applicant, students must verify their Hawaiian ancestry by registering with the Kamehameha Schools Ho‘oulu Verification Services and submitting relevant birth, death, and marriage certificates. 

Between 1966 and 2025, only two non-native Hawaiian individuals have been admitted to Kamehameha Schools under rare and unusual circumstances. In 2002, the first non-native Hawaiian student was admitted since 1966, when an open seat remained after all Native Hawaiians were admitted to the Maui campus. The admission of this student led to a series of protests and backlash, as many believed that Native Hawaiians should be the only ones to attend Kamehameha Schools. In response, trustees promised to review their admissions process to prevent similar situations in the future. The second non-native Hawaiian student was admitted in 2003 after misrepresenting his ancestry and was later allowed to attend only due to a court injunction. 

Over the years, Kamehameha Schools’ admissions policy has faced backlash and scrutiny. Critics of the policy argue that preference based on ancestry is a form of discrimination. Conversely, many individuals, especially Native Hawaiians, believe that this policy helps preserve their culture that has been systemically diminished for over a century. In general, courts have upheld the school’s approach because they recognize the distinction between illicit racial discrimination and culturally focused education for historically marginalized Indigenous populations.

More recently, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), the same organization that led the effort resulting in the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action in college admissions, has turned its attention to Kamehameha Schools in a similar legal attempt. Its lawsuit claims that “Nothing about training future leaders, or preserving Hawaii’s unique culture, requires Kamehameha to block its students from learning beside children of different ancestries.”

This lawsuit comes at a time when the legal landscape surrounding race and ancestry-based admissions has shifted, visible in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, which led to the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against race-conscious admissions. 

SFFA argues that Kamehameha’s preference for Native Hawaiians unnecessarily excludes other students. Supporters of Kamehameha Schools, however, emphasize that the policy is fundamentally different from discrimination. The policy aims not to exclude certain students but to address the historical marginalization of Native Hawaiians, where westernization gave them a pressing need to preserve Hawaiian culture, language, and traditions.

Although the school has been involved in lawsuits in the early 2000s, today’s legal landscape is significantly different. Additionally, the previous lawsuits were resolved before ever reaching the Supreme Court. If the current lawsuit ultimately reaches the Supreme Court, its conservative majority could reach a decision with far-reaching implications for Indigenous-focused educational institutions across the nation. A ruling against Kamehameha could make it more difficult for schools to prioritize historically marginalized groups, potentially limiting programs designed to preserve culture and heritage. 

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This article was edited by Karol Quinde and Emma Saliasi.