Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. authored a spot-on guest commentary on charter schools in the The Times of Northwest Indiana last week.

McDermott wrote about his three-year struggle to obtain a charter school in his community. He offered: "There is no reason that establishing charter schools in Indiana should take so long. Despite arguments to the contrary, charter schools do not undermine local public education. If anything, they serve to showcase how new educational methods and approaches can be applied successfully."

Read the column as McDermott puts his full support behind HB 1002, which would greatly expand charter school authorizing authority — among other initiatives.