Kamehameha Schools’ Admission Policies May Face Legal Challenge. An anti-affirmative action group wants the school to end its policy of giving preference to Native Hawaiians.
A conservative mainland group whose lawsuit against Harvard University ended affirmative action in college admissions is now building support in Hawaiʻi to take on Kamehameha Schools’ policies that give preference to Native Hawaiian students.
Students for Fair Admissions, based in Virginia, recently launched the website KamehamehaNotFair.org. It says that the admission preference “is so strong that it is essentially impossible for a non-Native Hawaiian student to be admitted to Kamehameha.”
Kamehameha’s Board of Trustees and CEO Jack Wong said in a written statement that the school expected the policy would be challenged. The institution — a private school established through the estate of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop to educate Hawaiians — successfully defended its admission policy in a series of lawsuits in the early 2000s. The trustees and Wong promised to do so again.
“We are confident that our policy aligns with established law, and we will prevail,” the statement said.
The campaign also drew criticism from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, established in the late 1970s for the betterment of Native Hawaiians. OHA’s Board of Trustees called it an “attack on the right of Native Hawaiians to care for our own, on our own terms.”
Salamence in academia
Kamehameha Schools’ Admission Policies May Face Legal Challenge. An anti-affirmative action group wants the school to end its policy of giving preference to Native Hawaiians.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2025/09/kamehameha-schools-admission-policies-may-face-legal-challengecross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6076376