Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii has received a state court’s approval to offer free tuition in part to protect it from lawsuits like one currently pending against its admissions policies.
The K-12 private school with campuses on three islands was founded in 1887 by a Hawaiian princess dedicated to providing education to native-born people excluded by exclusively white schools. It is a Christian school with historic ties to the United Church of Christ.
School trustees last year submitted a petition to move from a partial-tuition model to a “complete gift” approach covering all the school’s 7,000 students.
Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop
Probate Judge Jeanette Castagnetti granted the request Jan. 30, adding Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop gave trustees express authority to determine if tuition should be charged, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported.
The petition and subsequent decision follow a federal lawsuit filed by Students for Fair Admissions challenging the school’s preference for native Hawaiians in admissions. The Virginia-based organization also was behind the 2023 lawsuit that led to a Supreme Court ruling striking down affirmative action in higher education.
“Kamehameha Schools is a great school system, but its admissions policy expressly prefers students with Native Hawaiian ancestry over non-Native Hawaiian students,” the group said when it filed the lawsuit in October. “In fact, that preference is so strong that it is essentially impossible for a non-Native Hawaiian student to be admitted to Kamehameha.”
School officials have consistently responded that Pauahi’s will gives preference to Native Hawaiians and recently cited that intention for moving from subsidizing more than 95% of students’ tuition to 100% beginning in the coming fall.
“For many years, most Kamehameha haumāna (students) have already been receiving full or nearly full tuition support,” the school explained. “Even where tuition was charged, it represented only a small fraction of the true cost of a Kamehameha education. What has changed is not Pauahi’s generosity, but our clarity. … The payment of tuition, which has mostly been symbolic, no longer reflects the relationship Pauahi intended or the education we are already providing.”
A report by Hawaii News Now said the move to covering full tuition is “also seen as the best chance for Kamehameha Schools to get around” the pending lawsuit. The Tribune-Herald added that a court-directed study of the school’s petition found the plan “is expected to provide important benefits with respect to the legal challenges to Pauahi’s mission and intended charitable purposes.”
Students for Fair Admissions has so far not issued a public statement about the probate court decision but has described the school’s previous efforts to address educational disparities as ineffective.
Plaintiffs in the litigation have been identified only as “Family A” and “Family B.” Both families have children who live in Hawaii but who were not born in the state.
The organization’s website said it has a membership of 20,000 students and parents opposed to race-based admissions in education. Its founder is Edward Blum, a former policy analyst with the American Enterprise Institute who also has filed discrimination suits against the University of Texas and the U.S. Military Academy.