Voters kept saying no to tax hikes in a Minnesota school district. These moms stepped up.

The moms behind the unusual booth at the Annandale Business Expo took a cue from the businesses around them and set out a candy dish, a sweet draw before a tough pitch.

"We're supporting the school district and helping to bridge the gap of funding," Crystal Nutt explained to a woman eyeing the bowl of Twizzlers. The group of women, who call themselves "Cardinals Rising" after the school district mascot, was collecting donations in hopes of preventing cuts in the Annandale public schools.

Janet Erickson listened to Nutt's explanation before walking away, shaking her head.

"They already charge us property taxes for schools and now they need more," she whispered to a friend in a hushed debate over what the schools need. "Where is this money going? How come there's never enough?"

Like many districts across the state, Annandale Public Schools is facing cuts next year, including teacher layoffs that may drive up school class sizes. That reality, magnified in November after voters again rejected an operating levy for the district, galvanized the group of five moms in Wright County to run an ambitious campaign to win residents' support and money.

Their venture comes at a time when public schools are under increasing pressure and scrutiny. Culture wars that arose during the pandemic continue to keep schools in the spotlight. And as enrollments decline, schools are scrambling to balance budgets — all amid swirling uncertainty about future state and federal education funding.

In the fast-growing Wright County, Annandale Public Schools serves about 2,000 students from the area. Like other districts in Minnesota, it faces the budget stresses of stagnating enrollment, rising inflation and the recent sunsetting of one-time pandemic relief funds.

The Cardinals Rising moms learned the ins and outs of such school budget challenges and took their pitch to residents via Facebook posts, letters to the editor and podcast episodes.

So far, they've managed to raise $250,000, mostly open-ended donations in the form of checks written directly to the schools — enough to save a few teaching positions and the school robotics program. But they know the effort is not sustainable.

The long game is about generating community support for a potential levy and educating voters on the reasons the schools need more.

"This is not just a small-town issue or an Annandale issue," said Jessica Bruggeman, one of the moms behind Cardinals Rising. "That's why we need help on all sides."

A cycle of 'no' votes

Getting that help from local taxpayers has so far proved a hard sell in Annandale.

Voters have rejected several different requests for additional school funding. Fifteen years ago, it took three tries before voters approved funds for a new elementary school. And the district has had three failed building referendums in the past five years on a plan to build a new high school and renovate the existing high school for middle school students. The current middle school dates back to the 1920s.

The November levy, which failed by about 190 votes, would have provided about $1.6 million to support the district's operating expenses. District leaders, who already made cuts for the current school year, said the increase would have created financial stability for the schools and reduced class sizes.

"The bad part about all of this is that we have to ask," Superintendent Tim Prom said. "I know that sometimes puts voters in tough situations."

In the high-turnout presidential election year, only about half of the 45 Minnesota school districts that sought more taxpayer funding last November won voter approval.

That extra funding is key to most Minnesota schools' finances. More than 70% of the state's school districts receive financial support from locally approved operating levies.

Annandale's current levy, last approved in 2019, generates about $79 per student — drastically lower than the state average of $1,037. The Maple Lake school district, just to the east of Annandale, has a levy that brings in about $740 per student.

Mayor Shelly Jonas said there was community confusion this year over the difference between the levy and the high school bonding referendum that had previously been voted down. She said some people saw the ask for a $750 per-pupil increase and assumed their property taxes would jump by that much. (The proposed levy would have increased school property taxes by about $21 per month on a $300,000 home.)

"The rural people I do work for don't want to see their taxes go up at all," said Justin Reich, a parent of three who donated a portion of proceeds from his heating and plumbing business to Cardinals Rising.

"Comparing neighboring districts' levies didn't win the old-school people over," he said, offering a sports car analogy. "You can't just buy a Lambo because your neighbor has a Lambo."

Caught in culture wars

The political fight over schools and their funding is also about more than voters' pocketbooks.

Over the last several years, schools have been at the center of ongoing cultural clashes, largely over curriculum, book bans, gender identity and diversity issues. Such fights gained steam during the pandemic when parents had a new window into their students' education, giving rise to a conservative push for more parental control over what students were exposed to at school.

In 2022, a few dozen Annandale High School students walked out of class to protest an email sent by Prom to school staff warning about posts or clothing that would be "deemed political."

That letter came after the school received complaints about "safe space" signs that were designed to show LGBTQ students they are welcome.

In November's election, more than 60% of Annandale voters supported President Donald Trump, who aims to dismantle the federal Department of Education and withhold funding from schools with diversity initiatives.

The vast majority of the community's voters who cast a ballot for the president also voted on the referendum question.

Wright County is also among the fastest growing in Minnesota, bringing changes to Annandale that not all in the community support.

"I hear from people who worry that we are becoming something else," Prom said. "They like the small town, Mayberry-type feel."

Community conversations

Annandale High School Principal Charlie Bakker said he fields questions and feedback from parents with concerns about what is getting taught in schools and how social issues are discussed.

"There's a lot of questions and sometimes rumors," Bakker said, adding that a parent-led effort like Cardinals Rising can help build trust and transparency. "It'd be a nice problem to have to be even busier having conversations with people who really want to know about the schools from the source."

Finding ways to quickly and effectively explain school finance has been a tougher challenge than raising hundreds of thousands of dollars, said Alyssa Radisewitz Domagala, one of the moms spearheading the Cardinals Rising effort.

Their campaign began after a November school board meeting where Hannah Fischer, one of the moms, said she would donate to the school district what she would have paid in taxes had the levy passed. More moms in attendance wondered if they could get others to do the same. Soon, more and bigger ideas were getting passed around via Facebook messages.

Since then, the Cardinals Rising moms have hosted meat raffles and partnered with local businesses to help spread the word and drum up support. In the city's local park, they've erected a large board with a thermometer tracking the progress toward their $500,000 goal.

"We know the money is a Band-Aid," Bruggeman said. "But we're looking bigger than that."

At the recent expo, held at Annandale High School, school paraprofessional Glenda Thurk, pushed back on Erickson's skeptical comments as they were seated together at a local church's table.

"The older people here aren't in the classrooms, so they don't see the need," Thurk said before explaining how schools are at the heart of a small town. "This is about the future of Annandale."