Graphic design/photography??

For graphic design degrees, you could go about anywhere. People are going to look at your experience, so you should try to get a part time job at a screenprinter or a sign shop. Later you can use some of the skills you have learn there somewhere else, even if you are a marketing designer for some large company.

Well I don't have any idea of the procedure because I don't live there, I'm mexican. But I'm a graphic designer and I can tell you about me... I went to Medicine school one year before switching to Graphic Design, so I guess you switching from Government is not that crazy. As a graphic designer you can work in a lot of places and do endless kind of work one of them is precisely web design as you said. I think you should study in a University or a specialized Graphic Design school, anything but a technical school!! technicians don't design, they just manage files and use programs on the computer, the real beauty in design is aplying theory to practice, and technical schools won't teach you theory. And well... I don't see how you could have your own bussiness studying politics hehe. As a graphic designer interested in politics, science, phylosophy, psichology and music... my advice is SWITCH!! you won't regret it. Cheers.