In Old Dixie, the “segregation academies” were designed to further a system – a culture - of discrimination against Negroes Afro-Americans blacks persons-of-color one single minority. However, in Hawai’i. there is no discrimination of persons with native Hawaiian blood against whites, or Asians, or anybody else. What we are seeing here is pure envy – from people, many with greater financial or intellectual resources than some of the native Hawaiians, seeking to replace those Hawaiians with their own children and tap a private charitable trust’s resources for that selfish purpose. It is just plain wrong.
The Bishop Trust itself, however, is another matter. The governor of the state nominates the five trustees who are confirmed by the state supreme court justices (also appointed by the governor), and trusteeship has become one of the greatest political plums ever for the Democrats, who have ruled Hawai’i for over 40 years, as the trustees receive a salary of $800,000 per year.
“There were scandals involving trustees' unlucky personal investments being bailed out by later investments by the trust; and scandals involving the personal lives of some trustees. The percentage of the trust's income actually being spent on the school's educational programs was very low, with most income going to the investment portfolio. Influential people published essays exposing the corruption and political chicanery. Bishop Estate was looking like a for-profit private partnership filled with graft and corruption.” http://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/kamintro.html
In 1997, an investigation was conducted by the state attorney general and also by the IRS, and by December, 1999, all five of the Bishop Estate Trustees had either resigned or were permanently removed by court order.
New temporary trustees were appointed, the management style was changed, a new CEO was hired, and things appear to be improving. However, In April 2001 the Honolulu Star-Bulletin ran a series of articles updating the history of corruption in the relations between the trust:
“Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate ran a potent lobbying and political action network, according to files of the late Namlyn Snow. The Star-Bulletin previously reported that the estate's former trustees secretly funneled tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to dozens of isle lawmakers, lobbied Congress and the White House to preserve their hefty paychecks, conducted polls in the districts of legislators friendly to the trust's interests and played a role in the controversial 1999 confirmation defeat of Attorney General Margery Bronster.” http://www.starbulletin.com/2001/04/02/news/story2.html
