‘This situation cannot stop us from being ​​ourselves’

How former Orlando school teacher Johanna Lopez continues to fight for students as a Florida State Representative   

In 2019, then Orlando Public School Board member Johanna Lopez rallied support for UnidosUS’s Native Language Assessments bill. While it never passed, it did gain bipartisan support and contributed to Lopez’s decision to transition into politics. In 2022, she successfully ran for a position as representative for the 43rd district of the Florida House of Representatives. While she is no longer working in the classroom, Florida students are always at the forefront of her mind.  

In 2024, she co-led a successful bipartisan effort expanding access to high school diplomas, and she has provided unwavering support for policies that protect students from gun violence and discrimination of immigrant and LGBTQ+ youth. 

“I still have my picture,” Lopez said during a ZOOM interview as she pointed to the wall behind her holding a framed portrait of herself with her students at Orlando’s Colonial High School. Those students remind her to keep fighting for civil rights in challenging times.  

“Sometimes when we are a minority, it’s harder for us to get hearings and to pass a bill immediately,” she explained. “But that’s how the process goes. Sometimes you file a bill this year and the bill won’t pass for another two or three years.”  

Acknowledging and supporting a multilingual state 

Some bills she has sponsored aren’t directly related to education, but it can make a world of difference for the multilingual communities she taught for more than two decades. For example, in 2024, she filed FL 1393, a bill requiring interpreters for civil cases presented in the State of Florida’s clerk of courts, a service that had long been provided in criminal cases. In the case of schools, this service is important to civil suits for situations such as accidents on school grounds or in school-related activities.  

“Sometimes people don’t have the language proficiency and education to express themselves with the right words for the situation, so I started having this conversation with judges and lawyers,” she explained. “And all of them agreed that we need professional translations.” 

Clearing the pathway for high school diplomas 

Lopez is passionate about every Floridian having a chance to complete their high school studies, so she has spent the last several years advocating for a variety of bills that could help students facing barriers to graduation. 

For example, she is working to ensure that English learners have a wide array of alternative assessment options. Currently, the Florida Department of Education offers several alternate pathways for ELs to pass their English-language assessments, but she wants similar options for math.   

“In my view, it’s adding Algebra 1 because they need it to graduate,” she explained. “We’re not saying it’s in another language. They can create other options in terms of assessment that already exist.”  

For example, in addition to passing Algebra 1, students are already engaging in math through standardized testing like the American College Testing (ACT) and the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT). And, during the 2023-2024 school year, Orange County Public Schools offered Standards-Based Unit Assessments, PERT, STAR Assessment and ACCESS for ELLs 2.0, as alternative pathways. As such, López filed HB 99 expanding the same approach to the B.E.S.T. Algebra 1 End-of-Course (EOC) assessment. 

Lopez also wants to ensure that students ages 16 and older are not required to take additional coursework before attempting the General Educational Development (GED) exam, unless they do not achieve a passing score on the GED practice test, as established by the State Board of Education rule. To that end, she co-sponsored bill HB 265 (2023).    

“A GED opens so many doors. Once you get it, you can go on to higher education, you can go into the army, and you can get a better salary and a better job,” she said, emphasizing that high school completion is good for the economy and society at large. “It’s a help that is not only for them but for all of us.”  

Rewarding and incentivizing the educator workforce  

Lopez also recognizes that elected officials can improve education by ensuring that it rewards and retains high-quality teaching. In 2024, she filed HB 181 (2023) which sought a 5% cost of living adjustment of retirement benefits. Even though the proposal didn’t pass, the Florida Legislature did pass a 3% cost-of-living adjustment in its place.  

“I think that they deserve even more, but at least I tried,” she said.  

Protecting immigrant students and their peers 

One issue trending across the country and in the state of Florida keeps Lopez from sleeping at night. It’s the fact that the Florida Department of Education agreed to cooperate with the Trump Administration’s new immigration policies which rescinded a prior 2011 federal directive making schools and churches off–limits for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE​)​ raids​)​. 

“I cannot imagine anybody getting into the school system to take away a child or a staff member. This is something that can affect not only an immigrant, but every child in that school,” she said. “I understand that we need immigration reform, but this is not a situation that can be fixed in the churches or in the school system.”  

As UnidosUS continues to remind its constituents, the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Plyler v. Doe, dictated that all children have a right to attend public school from kindergarten through 12th grade regardless of immigration status. In fact, that ruling showed that denying such access to undocumented children violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, while Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits schools from discriminating based on race, color or national origin.   

In addition to interfering with these laws, Lopez says she is worried that ICE access to schools exacerbates an already existing climate of fear due to issues such as gun violence and bullying, and could heighten the already alarming rate of youth suicide, which according to the Centers for Disease Control, is the second leading cause of death among U.S. students ages 13 to 24.  

“You keep adding to all of this environment of persecution and harassment,” she said. “Here inside the school, in our state, they’re watching TV, they’re hearing their parents, so everything that is happening in that family, all the conversations, all the hypothetical or potential situations that can happen, is obviously going to affect everything academically, physically and emotionally.” 

While she continues to fight for the protection of immigrant students in the Florida Legislature, she encourages educators and community-based organizations to make sure the Know Your rights factsheets they circulate are up–to–date according to the Trump Administration’s revocation of the directive on sensitive areas. She also said that given the current climate of fear, advocates for immigrant rights should think critically and creatively about how they engage affected individuals and families.  

“Not everything needs to be published or put on social media. We are living in an unprecedented situation,” she said. “We have to create spaces to educate these families in a very private setting, and I think that they need power of attorney for everything,” she said.   

Keeping the faith, grounded in Latino resilience   

During tough political times like these, Rep. Lopez says several factors keep her grounded in the struggle for social justice. First, her mother has seen a lot of social and political changes since her birth in 1927 in Puerto Rico, where she raised Lopez. Next comes the energy from her children, ages 20 and 30, and her granddaughter who is now in kindergarten. All of them continue to speak Spanish with Lopez at home, reaffirming their identities as Latinos of diverse cultural backgrounds. She also says these familial traits are a representation of the rich cultural fabric of Florida, where 26% of the population identifies as Latino and 55% have Caribbean heritage.  

“We have to continue to feel proud and represent our countries,” Lopez said, adding that the current political situation “cannot stop us from being ourselves.”  

And finally, she credits the students from multiple cultural backgrounds who volunteered on her campaign for the Florida House of Representatives, even when they weren’t eligible to vote.  

“My students ran my campaign. I’m still here because of my students,” she said.