State taxpayer money will be withheld from a private school until numerous questions are answered regarding a bus accident that injured 16 students and extensively damaged a Milwaukee fire engine, Anthony Evers, the state's deputy superintendent of public instruction, said Thursday.

State officials are concerned about issues ranging from the driver of the bus being unlicensed to general safety and financial matters, including whether the school has insurance for the bus.

Evers said his department also is looking into whether the school, Elijah's Brook God's Nation Children School at 7429 W. Bradley Road, meets the minimum standards established in state law for private schools.

"We assume that the schools involved in this program comply with the expectations of the State of Wisconsin and when they don't, we will take the steps to either correct it or terminate them from the program," Evers said.

The bus driver, Carlos Mayes, 39, was ticketed after the accident Wednesday for driving without a license. He also did not have a commercial driver's license or a validation to drive a school bus, both required.

Mayes was traveling east on Bradley Road when he struck the rear portion of a fire engine that was backing into its garage at 8025 W. Bradley Road at 8:12 a.m. A firefighter who was directing traffic, Mayes and all the children were treated and released from area hospitals.

Evers said an insurance agency, J.P. & Associates of Brookfield, contacted his office Thursday morning to say that several insurance policies written to the school had been dropped because of non-payment of premiums.

Milwaukee Fire Department Lt. Lawrence Jenkins said the damage to the fire engine would probably be "in the high five figures" but a precise estimate was not yet available.

Rudolph Conrad, an assistant city attorney, said that if his office finds that the bus driver was responsible for the accident, the city would seek restitution.

The school administrator, Sheme Thorns, did not return numerous calls. Two reporters who visited the school Thursday were told by employees that it was closed, a planned day off, but would be open today. The employees said they were instructed not to discuss the matter and would not confirm reports that the driver also taught at the school.

The school, which opened in September in a strip mall, has 52 students. Evers confirmed that some teachers said they had not been paid on time.

Cathie Herka, a former teacher at the school, said the school has had high turnover in the teaching staff since the school year began, and that the school had almost no academic plan, curriculum, textbooks or other educational materials when the school year started.

Herka said she taught at Elijah's Brook until early October, when she quit.

She said she saw situations that concerned her, such as fifth- and sixth-grade students taking care of children in a day care center adjacent to the school during the school day.

She said Mayes was not on the staff when she left.

The school is in its first year in the voucher program. If enrollment stayed the same into the second semester, the school would have been on track to receive about $325,000 in public money this year.