Paying a Price: Private Schools an Iffy Proposition : Parents shopping around for a private school may be in for a pricey surprise. With the outcome of Proposition 174 pending, parents should remember “private” doesn’t always guarantee “good.”

I believe in private schools. My son attends one, and I taught very briefly in another this year.

Still, I would urge caution upon those who intend to vote in favor of Proposition 174. People who believe that “private school” equals “good school” could be in for a rude awakening.

I began to reach this conclusion last November, when I sought a place in the San Fernando Valley for my preschool son.

My search took me to about 15 private schools. At each, I spoke to the director, examined the curriculum, talked to teachers, asked about homework and visited classes. I paid at least two visits to each school I was seriously considering.

Although I am not a professional educator, my opinion was that most of them were not good. Some struck me as unprofessional--in business just to make money.

With others, the problem was more subtle. They charge $8,000 a year and in return feel that preschool children must launch immediately into a kind of academic education (tracing the letter J, etc.), which merely bores them, at the expense of crafts that teach them self-discipline and muscle skill. And they are overly proud of the gimmick of introducing tiny children to computers. These are easy to master and in my opinion pointless at that age.

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My husband and I finally found a perfect one, where our boy is happy, but it took many hours of searching.

To raise tuition money, I sought a teaching job. I have no state teaching credential, but I taught English as a second language in a Florida university and have an MA in linguistics and education.

The private school in which I took a $12-an-hour job was thoroughly disorganized from an educational point of view. There was no written curriculum. To teach math to my 15 first-graders, I was given a slender activity booklet of the type sold in chain stores. When I told the school director that some pupils would finish it in 10 days, she was happy they were so bright.

In English, I found the textbooks after a search, but my class was six books short, and there was no teacher’s manual.

I was assigned to teach music to seventh-graders, even though I hadn’t a clue how and I sing far enough off key to bring summer rain.

Several things--playground equipment, an open gate between the schoolyard and parking lot when young children were present--made me suspect a lax attitude toward safety.

Generally, the school seemed to navigate crisis by crisis. After two days, in frustration, I quit.

What is the lesson? The ease with which private schools can be started and operated in California is well-known. Proposition 174 is specifically designed to encourage the opening of more private schools. Could it be a second California Gold Rush for some entrepreneurs?