Kamehameha Schools Admissions Policy - Chapter 3

[Peshkwe]

(lasts about an hour or so)

Audio hearing

[Miulang]

Re: Kamehameha enbanc hearing

This one little comment from the plaintiff's attorney says it all for me:

"Anybody who graduates from Kamehameha Schools is entitled to some very very attractive scholarships," said attorney John Goemans...."

It's not about being given an education that is meant to help nurture and preserve the Hawaiian culture, it's all about the MONEY.

Well, the student involved in the case has now graduated from a public high school. Does anyone really think he's suffered any deleterious effects by being deprived of one year of schooling at Kamehameha?

If Kamehameha Schools loses this enbanc hearing, I say let any kid whose parents wants to spend an amount equal to the cost of a Punahou education into the school. Restrict "scholarships" to kids with a kanaka maoli lineage. That's legal, because there are many such scholarships available now. Then see how many non-kanaka maoli parents would be willing to send their kids to Kamehameha School.


Miulang

[Peshkwe]

Re: Kamehameha enbanc hearing

This one little comment from the plaintiff's attorney says it all for me:

"Anybody who graduates from Kamehameha Schools is entitled to some very very attractive scholarships," said attorney John Goemans...."

It's not about being given an education that is meant to help nurture and preserve the Hawaiian culture, it's all about the MONEY.

BINGO!

If Kamehameha Schools loses this enbanc hearing, I say let any kid whose parents wants to spend an amount equal to the cost of a Punahou education into the school. Restrict "scholarships" to kids with a kanaka maoli lineage. That's legal, because there are many such scholarships available now. Then see how many non-kanaka maoli parents would be willing to send their kids to Kamehameha School.


Miulang

That would get challanged as well just because it denotes a ethnic requirement.

To make it really ok as far as congress/supreme courts go...make the scholarship admissions to kids who's liniage goes back too....oh say....ancestors who were legal subjects (not just residents, big diff there) of the Kindom of Hawaii at the time of the birth of the founder... Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop.

[Miulang]

Re: Kamehameha enbanc hearing

The Star Bulletin's editorial this morning talked about the proceedings at the enbanc hearing the other day. Again, the issue of the MONEY was brought up:

"...In this week's hearing in review of the August decision by 15 members of the 9th Circuit Court, Judge Alex Kozinski, a Reagan appointee to the bench, suggested that Kamehameha Schools would not be bound by that law if it waived the $1,700 tuition.

That amounts to a fraction of the $20,000 annual cost of educating a child at Punahou School. Kozinski pointed out that 65 percent of the students at Kamehameha pay "hardly anything" in tuition because of scholarship aid, so tuition income amounts to "a drop in the bucket" for one of the world's largest charitable institutions...."

As Peshkwe stated previously, even if KSBE admitted non-kanaka maoli students, awarding the kanaka maoli students a scholarship based on their ethnicity would probably be challenged.

"...William A. Fletcher, a Clinton appointee, asked Grant if Kamehameha would be free of the constraints if Congress were to enact a law exempting Hawaiian children from the statute created by the 1866 law as "being a political category" rather than a racial group.

"I do not know," Grant replied. "That would raise some troubling issues." Those are the same issues cited by opponents of the Akaka Bill, and they surely would be raised again if such an exemption were sought...."

So if KSBE opened its doors to non-kanaka maoli students, and charged those students $20k, Peshkwe may be right in saying the only way for the kanaka maoli students to continue to only have to pay $1700 is by making the qualifier that the student can prove he/she is descended from citizens of the Monarchy. If you look back at who those citizens were at the birth of Bernice Pauahi Bishop in 1831, that would mean there would be very very few Caucasians and other ethnicities who could claim to be part of that category. And it would be based on political standing, and not on race.

What I really don't get is why a school, which receives absolutely no assistance from the Federal government, and which was established based on the will of a person, should have to come under such attack in the first place.

Miulang

[Peshkwe]

Re: Kamehameha enbanc hearing

Pesonally I believe...and I could be way off....the challange to the school is in a way an attempt to break the larger ethnic based programs like OHA and the homelands program. It'd be a minor thing and just a baby step, but in the grand scheme of things, it would be setting precedant in a more substancial way than any of the other challanges to native Hawaiian programs such as the Rice case.

Rice cracked the door open by saying that Kanaka Maoli don't have 'status' as per the requirements of the US government (like officially recognized US tribally enrolled Ndn's are 'status' and the mixed bloods...tho they may even be FBI's but too mixed to enroll in a 'recognised' tribe, or their Nation was 'officially disbanded' are 'non-status'), so they can't restrict political involvement based on ethnicity or lineage....tho it didn't go so far as to say that the use of the funds/programs for strictly Kana Maoli is illegal.

The KS challange if won would set that precedant and be the foot in the door for challanging all the other programs even if they were established by an act of congress.

Changing the scholarship requirements to one based on lineage back to a specific time and raising the tuition so as to to be similar (or slightly higher due to the specialized curriculum) to the other private schools equal in educational calliber, would in effect nullify that potential foot in the door...at least in that quarter. That way it'd be open entrance to kids regardless of ethnicity, but it would effectively maintain the higher percentage of Kanaka Maoli (due to the scholarships), particularly if it was also a requirement to have been a full citizen and subject of the Monarchy at that time rather than just having ancestors who happened to live in Hawaii but were citizens of other countries and never swearing allegance to the Kingdom of Hawaii nor becoming full fledged subjects of the King or Queen of the timeline/ancestery set point.


Sure there may be some non-native folks who can anti-up the full tuition and pay their kid's way through school, but they would be far fewer than if the school's ancestry requirements were totally done away with to include scholarship funding access.....I dunno if scholarship student could be given first placement over the full ride kids though so it might come down to a first come first served thing ...not too bad if that's the case 'cause at least with the few years waiting list they have now, and if a certain amount of specialized requirements had to be met for entrance (such as proficiancy with the Hawaiian language at whatever grade level is being entered) a non-native would be someone who's been living there for awhile and somewhat familiar with the way the culture is...not some FOB looking to grad from the school because of the name prestige only.

Might be far less abrasive and an easier pill to have to swallow if it saves that door from being breeched.

[damontucker]

An interesting Blog posted!

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/art...en_hawaii.html


This guy really has some excellent points about living here in Hawaii...

1st paragraph:

"Americans who visit Hawaii often feel they are in a foreign country, and if those tourists cared about the island's politics that might make them even more likely to wonder if they really are in the United States."

Mahalo to Peter Brown for writing an interesting post there...

[pzarquon]

Re: Kamehameha Schools Admissions Policy - Chapter 3

Also republished by Hawaii Reporter, for whatever that's worth.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: Kamehameha Schools Admissions Policy - Chapter 3

http://www.ksbe.edu/endowment/bpbish...l/allwill.html
excerpted:
Thirteenth. I give, devise and bequeath all of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate real and personal, wherever situated unto the trustees below named, their heirs and assigns forever, to hold upon the following trusts, namely: to erect and maintain in the Hawaiian Islands two schools, each for boarding and day scholars, one for boys and one for girls, to be known as, and called the Kamehameha Schools.

I direct my trustees to expend such amount as they may deem best, not to exceed however one-half of the fund which may come into their hands, in the purchase of suitable premises, the erection of school buildings, and in furnishing the same with the necessary and appropriate fixtures furniture and apparatus.

I direct my trustees to invest the remainder of my estate in such manner as they may think best, and to expend the annual income in the maintenance of said schools; meaning thereby the salaries of teachers, the repairing buildings and other incidental expenses; and to devote a portion of each years income to the support and education of orphans, and others in indigent circumstances, giving the preference to Hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood; the proportion in which said annual income is to be divided among the various objects above mentioned to be determined solely by my said trustees they to have full discretion.

This 31st day of October A. D. 1883.

==========================
Let us forget for a moment that we are living in 2006. We need to think in olde Victorian English, which is the form that Pauahi and her contemporaries were educated in and spoke.

Let us also forget for a moment that she was a Hawaiian woman. She was a Princess, and her capacity to bequeath at all was the result of her station not ethnicity.

That being said,

In bold is the only sentence which addresses the beneficiaries of her school. Remember, semi-colons separated sentences and periods pretty much ended paragraphs, as far as business writing went in that era.

In red are the only two descriptions of her intended beneficiaries. These are socio-economic in nature. The orphaned and the indigent.

In blue we see a dependent clause. Typical of writing back then, these started with verbs, as in "giving preference to...."

This means that her school should serve an orphaned and indigent population. And out of that orphaned and indigent student population, preference should be given to the Hawaiian orphaned and indigent.

Finally, what monarch, on this earth, only takes care of their own ethnic wards? She lived in a time when their subjects included naturalizing citizenry. She acknowledged this fact when she identified both Hawaiian and Part-Hawaiian ethnicities. It really is an insult to think that our ali'i weren't concerned for all of their subjects.

So then....

Let us take a critical look at what the Princess wanted. To educate those orphaned and indigent. And out of that destitute group, choose Hawaiian children first. Do you know what KS' policy is on orphaned and indigent? 15%. Their dependent clause gets 100% of admissions, but if I was a haole kid suing to get into Kamehameha, I would do so if I were in an orphaned foster kid. Because that is what her will said.

She is rolling in her Christian grave while her trustees' policies--which aren't racist but classist--hide behind the mantle of the bereft demographics our ethnic children suffer, but damned if they don't choose kids whose blood quantum is the convenient equivalent of my great-great grandkids who get dropped off at school in Ford Expeditions, Landcruisers and Hummers. And they throw monies at the communities like their "Ka Hoolako" program, because then it looks like they are doing something, all aimed as bait tossed away from their three pristine academies.

Because let's get real. They don't want their precious schools to appear like a school for orphans and indigents. Even if their entire student body would look like they qualified for a Hawaiian Homes lot. Meaning, they will take em bright first, Kanaka-looking isn't even an issue, and orphaned or indigent? Capped at 15%.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: Kamehameha Schools Admissions Policy - Chapter 3

And, the farther back in history we go, we can see better examples of when the trustees spoke that same form of English and interpreted her will in a closer fashion (nowadays, lawyers do the interpreting):

http://www.ksbe.edu/imuatv/shows/show1/show.htm

Legacy: Wright Bowman

In 1914, Kamehameha was considered by many to be almost an orphanage, a "poor boys" school. Can you imagine what it would be like to become a boarder at age 7? Still spry at 93 years of age, Wright Bowman's remarkable story spans a timeline that ranges from the horse and buggy to the Space Shuttle. Master woodworker Bowman and student Ka`ili Chun, graduates separated by over 50 years (KS '28 and '80), are working together in the time-honored tradition of teacher and apprentice.

[Miulang]

Re: Kamehameha Schools Admissions Policy - Chapter 3

This reminds me of the stories they tell about how when the Native Americans were pushed onto reservations by the US government in the 1800s, the Americans thought they were giving the Indians the poorest, least arable land around (their "reward" for having lived on the Continent first, I guess ). The quality of life on those reservations was horrible, because the Indians, as wards of the United States, were not allowed to make any decisions for themselves. Then in the 1950s and 60s, when there was a renaissance in the Native American culture (Russell Means, Wounded Knee, Rosebud, etc.), they started to fight back. And that godforsaken land that they were once relegated to turned out to have, for all its godforsakenness, water, minerals and other resources that the Americans wanted. So then America had to negotiate new treaties for resource rights. Now who's laughing?

Similarly, why has Kamehameha Schools' cachet risen to the point where people are suing just to get in, when years ago, an education there was looked upon with derision? Why aren't people suing to attend Indian Schools on reservations?

Miulang

[damontucker]

Re: Kamehameha Schools Admissions Policy - Chapter 3

This reminds me of the stories they tell about how when the Native Americans were pushed onto reservations by the US government in the 1800s, the Americans thought they were giving the Indians the poorest, least arable land around (their "reward" for having lived on the Continent first, I guess ). The quality of life on those reservations was horrible, because the Indians, as wards of the United States, were not allowed to make any decisions for themselves. Then in the 1950s and 60s, when there was a renaissance in the Native American culture (Russell Means, Wounded Knee, Rosebud, etc.), they started to fight back. And that godforsaken land that they were once relegated to turned out to have, for all its godforsakenness, water, minerals and other resources that the Americans wanted. So then America had to negotiate new treaties for resource rights. Now who's laughing?

Similarly, why has Kamehameha Schools' cachet risen to the point where people are suing just to get in, when years ago, an education there was looked upon with derision? Why aren't people suing to attend Indian Schools on reservations?

Miulang

Most of the Native American Schools that I have visited are on reservations in the mainland... Most Reservations have a complete set of their own protected laws that don't follow the State Laws...(thus you see casinos on Reservations)

Kamehameha school does not sit on a Federally established "Reservation"

I'm not saying all... however, the ones where I lived in Western Washington,
All of them were in terrible shape compared to the public schools....

Therefore why would a child want to attend a school on a reservation?

Here in Hawaii... the private schools are much nicer than the public schools...
The reason people will do almost anything to get their kids into them....

Manoa

[Miulang]

Re: Kamehameha Schools Admissions Policy - Chapter 3

Kamehameha school does not sit on a Federally established "Reservation"

Manoa

And isn't this also part of the crux of the argument with the Akaka Bill? And that's the reason why non-kanaka maoli parents want to try to get their kids into KSBE ... because the tuition would be cheaper at Kamehameha than Punahou. KSBE admission policies will admit non-kanaka maoli students on a space available basis. But when you've got so many kanaka maoli kids who rightfully should come first per the provisions of Bernice Pauahi Bishop's will, there's no room for others. Why is that called discriminatory? All private schools have waiting lists. If going to a private school is the driving issue, then why didn't the parents of that last kid try to get him into HPA or some other private school? Why only Kamehameha? If it was "just to prove a point", then the lawyers representing that student and the student's parents should be hauled into court and charged with child abuse (I wouldn't want my child to be a poster child for any political reason ).

Miulang

[waioli kai]

Re: Kamehameha Schools Admissions Policy - Chapter 3

Also republished by Hawaii Reporter, for whatever that's worth.

What it's worth is a lot about the disconnected, twisted reasoning of the lawyer's in the name of 'Boy' Doe vs. KS. It's nothing about the intent of the 14th Amendment and everything about 'dough', as in "Boy" Doe's lawyers' compensation$ and futher di$enfranchisement of Hawai'i Hawai'ians.

[timkona]

Re: Kamehameha Schools Admissions Policy - Chapter 3

I wouldn't want my child to be a poster child for any political reason

Not even RACISM if it means benefitting your child.

More cognitive dissonance.

[waioli kai]

Re: Kamehameha Schools Admissions Policy - Chapter 3

-

-- "Similarly, why has Kamehameha Schools' cachet risen to the point where people are suing just to get in, when years ago, an education there was looked upon with derision?---

The anti-KS lawyers never mention the cultural preservation aspects of a KS education. For them it's all a matter of money..."susidization", "college funds", etc. Hawai'i culture preservation has nothing to with it. These same anti-KS lawyers would be such lawyers who would sue KS on behalf of non-Hawai'ian, or even Hawai'ian students who would, with their lawyers' backing, reject instruction in Hawai'ian language, Hawai'ian history, hula dancing, choir, and/or uniforms or any number of KS-specific "requirements".

---"Why aren't people suing to attend Indian Schools on reservations?" ---

The genocidal-effects and disenfranchisement of native peoples spawned by justUS were profound on the mainland. It is a wonder there are any survivors, that any remnants of native culture might survive muchless there be enviably viable indigenous institutions of primary and secondary education at such reservations.