It has been said that flattery will get you nowhere. I don’t know who said that, but it wasn’t a 5-year-old education blogger and his name wasn’t Eddie. My Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow hosted a podcast with prolific education blogger and new media entrepreneur Matthew Tabor from Education Debate at Online Schools. After Matthew put up this post late yesterday, Ben wants to record podcasts with all the prolific education bloggers he can:

…Ben is a favorite of mine because he exemplifies that holy trinity of blogging: clear, concise and thoughtful. Think about it – it’s tough to pull off all three at the same time.

Also, from what I hear, he’s a mentor to 5-year old education blogger Eddie, who posts his analysis of education policy at Ed Is Watching.

You can’t buy that kind of good press. Well, maybe you can. I just haven’t saved enough in my piggy bank to even begin imagining the possibility. It’s not the first time Matthew has said nice things about me, this blog and my friends. Anyway, the podcast discussion is thought-provoking and hopefully inspiring. Please listen!

And for all that and more, I urge you to bookmark Matthew’s site to get helpful news and great insights, like his recent piece praising Pennsylvania’s governor for seeking to remove “master’s bumps” (teacher pay incentives for earning master’s degrees) out of the education budget. Yes, you read me right. What was once kind of a visionary, off-the-wall suggestion has been reinforced by research, touted in the Independence Institute’s Citizens’ Budget, and now is up for serious debate in one of our nation’s largest states.

I’d like to think I played maybe just a tiny part in that whole process. Then again, I could be flattering myself. It is Friday, after all.