By Morton Kondracke

With student performance still dismal 23 years after a federal report proclaimed “a nation at risk,” it’s just possible that a decisive, bipartisan “grand bargain” can be struck to improve the public schools.

The deal would be: Republicans agree to more equitable distribution of school funding – including higher teacher pay – while Democrats agree that teachers should be paid for performance, not just seniority.

Two national initiatives give rise to hope that that the decades-long right-left battle over education, accountability versus money, can be broken at last and the public schools improved.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched a project along with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, the liberal Center for American Progress and the moderate America’s Promise that will start by publishing report cards on each state’s progress on school reform.

Following up its campaign against trial lawyers, the chamber is likely to target teachers unions that resist reform. The presence in the chamber coalition of the liberal CAP, headed by former President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, John Podesta, could clear the way for other Democrats to challenge the unions.

At the same time, Podesta’s CAP is urging correction of fiscal inequities between school systems to accompany higher national standards, which chamber officials say they would consider supporting as part of overall reform.