I did the same thing working for the county I lived in. I left my job at a private company with little benifits, and applied for a slum job with the county. After a year of hell, I was able to attain a job in a field that was pretty cool. I ended up making almost 15 dollars an hour over the job I had left. If I never had my foot in the door with the county, I would have never been able to get that job.
In your case, you are going from good job with benifits with good pay, to worse. You can network with people at the job at your school, just as much as with the job with the county you are thinking of applying for. A intern is pretty much slave labor with no promises.
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