Many studies on education expenditure in India have examined the trends and pattern of public expenditure on education, inter-state disparities in education expenditure and also the impact of the spending,. The coverage of time period of these studies is limited. Time period considered by many researchers is different; Dev and Mooij (2002) from 1987-88 to 1999-00 (8 years), Joshi (2006) from 1987-88 to 2001-02 (14 years), Prabhu (1996) from 1991-92 to 1994-95(4 years), Panchamukhi (2000) from 1987-88 to 1997-98(11 year), Sudhakar and Moss (2003) from 1987-88 to 1995-96 (9 years) and so on. In the present research work an attempt has been made to fill this research gap considering 40 years of study period from 1974-75 to 20014-15. A few studies have taken in to consideration of district wise analysis on expenditure, status as well as infrastructure facilities of primary education. Further, In Karnataka, studies on education, which link /correlate with human development, economic growth at district level are a few. An attempt has been made in this study to analyse the expenditure pattern of state governments on primary education.