From 1930 to 1964, when the Brazilian economy was growing rapidly, the expansion of primary schooling was far from sufficient to overcome the Brazilian comparative educational backwardness. This paper shows that not only there was little interest of governments in expanding schools, but also that administrative and financial structures of primary schooling were responsible for sustaining that backwardness. State governments were responsible for the administration of primary schools, but did not have enough financial resources. The federal government, which had a huge part of the tax revenues, did not transfer enough financial resources to the states. Comparing the Brazilian case to that of the United States seems to support our conclusions.
economic history; decentralization; educational finance; human capital
