Court upholds school's Hawaiians-first admission policy

AP via SFGate ^ | 12/5/6 | DAVID KRAVETS

[wideawake]

Considering it's a private schools, sounds like they are upholding property rights.

No they aren't. Their argument is not derived from property rights, but from social activism.

They would not allow a school to favor whites in admissions, be it private or not.

[SmithL]

Considering it's a private schools, sounds like they are upholding property rights.

I'd like a little consistency from this court in their support for property rights.

[dljordan]

"Then legally a private school can favor white, Christian or Jewish. Legally. "

No, they said they wanted to help "downtrodden, indigenous peeps".

[jobim]

I've been a teacher in Hawaii for 15 years, so I know something of this issue.

The school & trust are the result of a will of a Hawaiian royal princess, married to a Caucasian banker. In her will she directed money to be used for the children of Hawaii, especially those of Hawaiian blood, and especially the poor and orphaned.

The real scandal and injustice today is that they rigorously recruit only the best and brightest, no matter what percent of Hawaiian blood a person has. The result is that the middle and upper class with any trace of Hawaiian blood who have academic skill, along with the finest athletes, make up the student body. All of the truly needy Hawaiian kids, those generally with a greater portion of Hawaiian blood, from underpriveliged homes, broken families, dyslexic, suffering any kind of learning disability, of which the public schools are filled, are all denied admission.

Yes, a private school by rights has the student body it targets. The real issue here is that this richest of estates in the United States runs a school to qualify one of its arms as non-profit, rewards local judges and politicians with membership on its boards, and uses its money so extravagantly at the school without adhereing to the will of its founder.

Their preventing the truly needy of this state from what is rightfully theirs according to the will, while at the same time spending money in the most extravagant manner on its preppy best & brightest, is the real scandal.

Did I mention that breakfast and lunch is all provided free? That they help their graduates with college tuition? That teachers get in the tens of thousands to run their classrooms on incidental expenses? That the finest Koa wood panelling lines the hallways? Any idea of the state of our public schools by contrast? The pregnancy rate, the amount of fights per day, the drug use? So many of these kids with any Hawaiian blood could escape their plight with a good disciplined school, but the very kids who need it are excluded.

The system is perpetuated by those who make it in keeping it that way. No one speaks of the injustice of the system for fear of getting kicked off the gravy train, or not being able to climb aboard.

[rocksblues]

From your post I would be checking out the money trail back to the 9th circuit court.

[debg]

Kam Schools are private and has earned their stellar reputation from years of hard work and dedication. It's no wonder that only the best and the brightest now gain entrance. Those forces that want to dilute the Kam schools should look to the public school system. There, they can create magnet schools and magnet programs that can replicate the Kam schools core experience (no boarding) without the parents having to pay tuition.

[LachlanMinnesota]

So, do they use the old standards such as allowing octoroons in?

[RCFlyer]

The debate is over the term "Hawaiian children" and the Princess' intent.
- Her will does not require "Hawaiian blood"
- She married a white man (who earned the trust)
- Royalty at the time were concerned with improving Hawaii in general (encouraging Christian missionaries to come to Hawaii, for example).
Easy to see how some conclude she wanted all children of Hawaii to have access to the school, in order to make Hawaii a better place (and not just native Hawaiians with at least 1/32 blood).

Those administering the trust have been crooks... all five were replaced six years ago when evidence came out how they used the trust to enrich themselves. This is a lot about power. Like "jobim" said, if they wanted to help the children, they would spend some of that money on more than the three campuses they have now so more kids could attend.

A trust worth nearly 7 billion… more than Harvard University… and what have they achieved? Where are the Hawaiian great men and women these schools were supposed to produce?

[Mr. Lucky]

The Hardard endowment was worth $29 Billion, give or take, as of the end of June.

[jobim]

What about the directions in the will specifically targeting the most needy?

John Lee has 1% Hawaiian blood, parents both professionals, he's Ivy League material, gets in. John Kanaka has 50% Hawaiian blood, reads at the 5th grade level in 10th grade at the local public school, rejected.

What did Pauahi Bishop intend? To help those most likely to succeed? No, all involved in these campuses set apart from the riff-raff on hillsides with multiple gyms, multi-purpose halls, mahogany desks, all involved work in great concert to keep it pristine, unfettered by social & academic misfits.

Yes, let them go to a charter school for free, you suggest. What about the will?

[bill1952]

and to help remedy some of the wrongs done during the U.S.-backed overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1893.

How about staying in the same Century?

And for all of those talking about "private" rights in this issue, that ship sailed decades ago.

As a private business owner, I have no right to hire a white or any other race over another, if they are both equally qualified.

The circus will not be overturned on the basis of private ownership.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

As a private business owner, I have no right to hire a white or any other race over another, if they are both equally qualified.

Sure you can. That is if you have less than 17 employees.

[bill1952]

Good point.

[Sandy]

What Congress may or may not want is irrelevant.

The court is construing a statue, so what Congress may or may not want is actually all that matters.

[fish hawk]

A "part" Hawaiian is still a Hawaiian.

[fish hawk]

Does Lokalani Lindsey ring a bell? Another thing to think about is that about 90% of all the decisions made by the 9th circuit are overturned by higher courts.

[Xenalyte]

I'm still waiting for the gov to give a legal definition of the various races.

Only one racial designation need concern us: human.

The rest are ethnicities, and frankly irrelevant to the real world.

(And yes, I have gotten in trouble for putting down "human" in the Race box on government forms. But I don't worry. I can prove it.)

[Redcloak]

The court gave the right answer, but for the wrong reason. The school should be able to discriminate on whatever basis it wants because it's a private institution. The plight of the native Hawaiians is irrelevant. The school's freedom of association is what matters here.

(Though, I suspect that the school's attorneys presented a sniveling, PC argument about the poor, downtrodden Hawaiians instead of boldly asserting their rights as Americans.)

[NinoFan]

All of the people talking about the private vs. public property issue have no idea what they are talking about.

The 9th Circuit is analyzing this under SCOTUS precedent from the 1960s which held that the 1866 Civil Rights Act (now known as Section 1981) bars discrimination based on race in private contracts. That decision was then later naturally applied to private schools. You may agree or disagree with that decision, but it is the precedent here and it's what the 9th Circuit should have been working under.

What the 9th Circuit did here was disgusting. It totally twisted the Court's prior holdings to justify something the Court has expressly prohibited. The system in question here does in fact discriminate entirely based on race. The defenders of the system don't even deny that.

Arguments about the quality of the schools do not matter. It was the 9th Circuit's duty to apply the law correctly and it failed to do so. I will be shocked if this decision isn't reversed.

[NinoFan]

I should note that there is no exemption from Section 1981 for the Kamehameha schools. Congress could exempt them if it so choose, but it has not done so and thus the system should have been found in violation of the law by the 9th Circuit.