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For decades Brazil has consistently presented poor educational outcomes compared to its Latin American neighbors. The literature suggests that elite-biased policies might be a cause of this lag. This article presents further evidence that educational policies pursued by Brazilian federal governments were elite biased in the period 1930–1964. Although primary schooling was the responsibility of state governments, a significant amount of tax revenues were in the hands of the federal government. Therefore, federal policies were important determinants of educational outcomes at all school levels. Evidence collected in speeches and in educational finance data show that Brazilian education policies tended to give little importance to primary education. In particular, the article shows that under the governments of Getúlio Vargas and Juscelino Kubitschek, those most committed to the strategy of import substitution industrialization, education policies favored tertiary education for the elites at the expense of primary education for the masses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]