Abstract: Argentina's long-run economic decline has puzzled social scientists for decades. While the macroeconomic roots of this decline have received extensive attention, this project considers an underexplored explanation: the political economy of education policies, given the importance of human capital for sustained economic development. Using original data on curriculum and teacher policies from 1870 to 2015, I document three critical junctures between 1947 and 1954, all during Perón's administration: (1) the national curriculum drastically reduced its emphasis on teaching productivity-enhancing math and science skills in favor of teaching moral values; (2) entry into the teaching profession became less selective and less meritocratic; and (3) teacher salaries plummeted, reducing the attractiveness of the profession for members of the middle and upper classes. A new measure of education quality, also constructed from 1870 to 2015, provides additional evidence that Argentina's human capital stagnation began during Perón's administration. Drawing on qualitative evidence and text analysis of primary sources, I argue that Perón’s effort to build working-class support led him to reform the curriculum and reshape teaching as a source of patronage, lowering entry standards and salaries in ways that, contrary to his stated egalitarian commitments, persistently reduced the quality of primary education.