The scale of government which interests people is a direct product of the issues that interest them. Want to influence school policies? Almost 100% a local ward

The scale of government which interests people is a direct product of the issues that interest them. Want to influence school policies? Almost 100% a local ward/district issue. Want to have a meaningful impact on almost anything else? It all happens at the state & federal level. In some states (CA being a prime example), a huge amount of even normally local education policy issues have been taken over by the state because of the way schools are funded. I have known plenty of people who went into local government and left after 3-5 years, because the fights are just as hard as at the higher levels, but the chance to engage in meaningful policy creation is almost nil. The professionals use it as a training/credentialing circuit, and the regular citizens generally seem to leave permanently.