Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., lost a tough fight for re-election to Ron Johnson, a Republican businessman, according to the Associated Press.

Feingold has a record as a deficit hawk, but he’s also known as a critic-from-the-left of the No Child Left Behind Act, the latest version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Feingold was one of just a handful of lawmakers to vote against the law back in 2001. Since then, he’s introduced a series of bills aimed at giving districts more flexibility in implementing the law, and scaling back the law’s reliance on standardized tests.

Johnson campaigned on cracking down on spending. And he says on his website that he wants to see more local control in education.

And in Illinois, Rep. Phil Hare, a Democrat and a member of the House Education and Labor Committee, who tends to look out for rural schools, was defeated tonight by Bobby Schilling, a pizza restaurant owner.

Hare has introduced legislation encouraging schools to adopt positive behavior supports to help with discipline issues. Schilling supports a bill allowing states to opt out of the NCLB law’s accountability requirements.

But in North Carolina, Rep. Larry Kissell, a Democrat and former teacher, won his bid for re-election against Harold Johnson, a TV journalist. Kissell, a member of the National Education Association, got help from the NEA. in his re-election bid.