Why Local Government Matters More Than People Think

When people try to fit the broad and complex topic of government in their head their thoughts are flooded with national and larger offices of government, like the top of the three branches of government, the President, Supreme Court, and Congress. What people often don’t notice is that the decisions that affect our lives and our families are often created by the people that are much closer to home.

What the local government controls is really right under your nose, for example, public schools, roads and infrastructure, and police/fire departments, these are all controlled/funded by your local government. Every year the local government specifically the Roanoke County Board of supervisors has to approve of the budget for public schools, they also pay for renovations to schools such as Cave Spring High School. Another example, police and fire departments budgeting, The Alexandria Police Department is funded through the city’s annual budget, a specific example of Alexandria local government making decisions would be recent debates over whether or not police officers should be stationed in schools, according to the Washington Post, Alexandria’s city council wanted to remove resource officers from schools but then later reversed this decision and reinstated them in schools due to community concerns. These are specific examples as to why local government is actively a factor in public safety.

Obviously by looking at all of these examples we can tell that the local government is making a huge difference in our lives and so we wonder now, why do people like to overlook the local government. The reason you turn on the news and never see small local affairs is because it doesn’t appeal to the national audience of places like CBS, ABC, and Fox. Of course sometimes you’ll occasionally see a large headline in small towns but overall small local affairs don’t bring in audiences for everybody so large outlets look towards diplomatic issues of the President and nationwide law making of the president.

Another reason local affairs don’t get as much attention is because of small voter turnout. Social media and the news only focus on what happening in D.C. so people couldn’t care less about showing up to vote for the next mayor or for the city council. Because of this people aren’t realizing that our local government is much stronger than we give it credit for.

Where it gets personal for my fellow students is this, what you eat at lunch, wh

ether you can take your phone out in the hallway, whether or not that new football field will be built at your school, these are all issues that your local government deals with mainly to do with budgets. The local government can effect your family including where your family can live, how your community is kept safe, and the taxes your family pays. Overall it is amazing how we don’t realize that the people making decisions that deeply impact us, we often don’t even know their names.

You don’t need to be an expert to keep your eyes open in local issues, but to simply understand that our community is deeply impacted by people close to home we can improve voter turnout and bring more attention to issues within our community. So the next time you hear of the mayoral race or a new school board election, try to remember that what these local officials say might have more impact on you than the debates that are happening in Washington.