"Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge."

"Mend your ways and encourage one another."

"Do everything with love."

Passages from the Bible line the walls of Messmer High School, a Catholic school in inner-city Milwaukee, where students read Shakespeare, study theology and even learn from a lawyer about the legal system.

Most of the 600 students are from low-income black families, and the majority pay no tuition to attend the school.

Messmer, which is where former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination earlier this month, is among 125 private Milwaukee schools participating in the controversial Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. Under the program, the state pays for the private education of Milwaukee students who come from low-income families.

Unlike choice schools in La Crosse, which are public schools, choice schools in Milwaukee are private schools, most with religious affiliation.

But along with the education options, parents choose Messmer because they want to feel safe, Principal Jeff Monday said.

"Teachers actually care (about you)," said Messmer student Samantha Stone.

"The school is small, so you get more time," said classmate Jashanti Brown, who used to attend public school.

Monday said he wants to prepare his students for college -- that's a top priority. But he also wants to mold good citizens.

"We know we can teach (students) academics, but they need to want to do something with what they're learning," agreed Ron Shaheed, director of education at the Clara Mohammed School.

Rashida Evans, dean of students at CEO Leadership Academy, another choice school in Milwaukee, echoed that thought. "Our mission," she said, "is really simple: It's to send scholars to and through college."

But she also wants her students to experience life. That's why the school organizes trips to the theater and ethnic restaurants.

Nearly 100 percent of the students at CEO are black, participating through the choice program, Evans said.

"Parents have a great deal of power here (in Milwaukee)," said Susan Mitchell, president of School Choice Wisconsin, about the nation's oldest voucher system. "Their money follows their children."

Critics of the choice program claim it attracts the best students from the public schools. But the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in a seven-part series, contends it found those claims to be false.

"Our opposition doesn't want the status quo to change," Mitchell said. "They want the dollars and the students to keep coming to public schools, no matter what."

But not all choice schools are created equal. About 10 percent "demonstrate alarming deficiencies," according to the Journal Sentinel series.

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program

Under this program, state funds are used to pay for the cost of children from low-income families in the city of Milwaukee to attend, at no charge, private schools in the city. To be eligible to attend a choice school for the first time, a pupil's total family income must not exceed 175 percent of the federal poverty level, or $35,523 for a family of four in 2006-2007. About 14,825 students participated in the program at 125 schools during the 2005-06 school year.