Abstract This study assesses the relationship between public expenditure and human capital development, concentrating on the Rescue Teachers Programme in Taraba State, Nigeria (2015-2023). Public expenditure on education is a critical tool for fostering human capital, and the Rescue Teachers Programme was a specific government intervention aimed at mitigating teacher shortages in rural schools to improve educational access and quality. The research had two primary objectives: to evaluate the programme’s impact on human capital development, and to identify the challenges impeding its successful implementation. The study is grounded in Public Choice Theory, which was adopted because it provides a framework for understanding how government spending decisions may be influenced by the self-interest of political actors and bureaucrats, rather than solely by public welfare. This lens is crucial for analyzing potential inefficiencies and implementation failures in publicly funded programmes like the Rescue Teachers initiative. A qualitative research design was employed, utilizing primary data collected through in-depth interviews with key informants, including programme coordinators, deployed teachers, and school heads in rural communities. The work reveals that the programme positively impacted human capital development by increasing teacher availability and student enrollment in previously underserved areas and it also faced severe challenges, including chronic delays in salary payments to teachers and political interference in teacher postings, which demotivated staff and threatened the programme’s sustainability. The study concludes that while the Rescue Teachers Programme represents a strategic public investment in human capital, its effectiveness is undermined by governance-related implementation challenges. It recommends the establishment of a dedicated, transparent funding mechanism and the creation of an autonomous body to manage teacher deployment, thereby insulating the programme from political pressures and ensuring its long-term success.