Teacher Collects Her Bonus: A House

For as long as Lorena Ledesma could remember, she dreamed about the perfect home. But until recently, she didn’t think she could afford it.

In exchange for a reduced interest rate and $7,500 for closing costs and a down payment, Ledesma promised to stay at Baker Elementary School in El Monte, a low-performing school, for another five years.

Ledesma, who recently moved into her ideal home, became the first teacher in Los Angeles County to benefit from the state’s $164-million Extra Credit Teacher Home Purchase Program, created last year.

The program aims to attract and keep credentialed teachers, vice principals and principals in schools that have been rated low performing by the state, said Calvin Naito, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Community Development Commission, which administers the program here.

Last year, elementary, middle and high schools statewide performing in the bottom 10% had about four times more teachers without credentials than those in the top 10%, said Wayne Johnson, president of the California Teachers Assn.

On Tuesday, state officials announced that Los Angeles and Orange counties, which initially received $7.5 million apiece, would each receive $15 million more. So will the city of Los Angeles, which originally got $15 million.

Of the nine cities and counties in the state that offer the program, Los Angeles and Orange counties have been the most successful, state officials said. Twenty-five teachers in Los Angeles County have been approved for the loans and grants, and 12 have closed escrow.

Orange County has approved 29.

The city of Los Angeles has yet to approve any, because many of the teachers at the more than 200 low-performing schools aren’t credentialed as required by the program, said Doug Smith, who helps administer it for the Los Angeles Housing Department.

But several teachers she knows, Ledesma said, have been motivated by the housing offer to seek those credentials.

Ever since she was a child, Ledesma, now 28, knew she wanted to live in a house with character. But as she began looking for a home last October, she realized she could only afford something for about $170,000.

Her luck changed when she met with a banker who introduced her to another lender that offered the teacher mortgage program.

A real estate agent showed Ledesma her “dollhouse” home for $210,000: a three-story, 1928 Craftsman in La Verne with a fence, porch, swing and roses entwined around an arch at the entrance.

She had to come up with only $4,000 to cover closing costs and a down payment, instead of $12,000.

Escrow closed on Valentine’s Day, and the single teacher moved into her home a month later.

“Without the program, I honestly think I could not have gotten my dream home but would have had to settle for a condo,” she said. “I’m grateful.”

Ledesma, who has been teaching at Baker Elementary for four years, is more than happy to continue teaching children whose parents, like hers, speak only Spanish and make little money.

“The program was basically a bonus,” she said.

Eligible teachers must work at schools ranked in the bottom 30% based on the most recent Academic Performance Index. In Los Angeles County, there are about 700 such schools.