MADISON (WKOW) -- A throng of protesters outside the state capitol denounced many of the policies of the administration of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, as Pence spoke to supporters inside the building during a historic visit.

The group Indivisible Madison used the period of the Vice President's speech Tuesday to chant and rail against administration positions on school choice, taxation, and the LGBTQ community.



"I believe in protecting my queer community," UW student Andrea Seiler says. "It feels like an act of violence to invite a blatant homophone into the space of governance."



"We truly believe (Pence) should be removed for his complicity in the Ukraine extortion scheme," says protest organizer Linda Kessel.

Kessel says school choice is misguided. "We think it important that taxpayer money go to public schools, rather than to ciphon it off to charter and private schools."



"We need to reinvest in Wisconsin, hire more teachers, lower classroom sizes and make sure every student is getting access to the attention they deserve," says Rep. Jonathan Brostoff (D-Milwaukee). Other Democrats and some education leaders join Brostoff in urging support for a proposed law that would effectively phase out school vouchers and focus all resources on public schools.

Brostoff says state Republicans have been more than willing to fund the Foxconn factory project in southeastern Wisconsin. "When you talk about giving money to those guys, you don't even blink an eye, but something for public education, that's something we have to argue over?"



The Vice President's speech was attended by several hundred children from choice schools, with some of their teachers, including Tiffany Williams of Milwaukee's Granville Lutheran. "I have graduated many eighth graders," Williams says. "I teach middle schoolers, and the success stories just get greater and greater."



