The teacher began praying for the girl after she and a friend confided that they had used a Ouija board. The recent failure of two private schools in Milwaukee funded with taxpayers' money is further ammunition for critics of the litigated Wisconsin pilot program. The state of Wisconsin currently subsidizes several private secular schools in Milwaukee under a program targeting inner-city schoolchildren. In the state budget passed last year, Gov. Thompson extended public aid to include religious schools. This was the first such action in the nation, a development hailed as precedent by the Religious Right.
Funding continues for nonsectarian private schools.
Even schools with no proven track record were eligible for funding, increasing likelihood of school closings leaving students in the lurch. Also closing was newly formed Milwaukee Preparatory School. Both schools have been accused of exaggerating their enrollments. Kenneth Starr heads the private team defending the governor's religious choice plan. Starr is the former solicitor general under President Bush who is now investigator into President Clinton's tie to the Whitewater land development.