A country like Belgium, or socialist countries in central Europe spend more money on art education than the United States, which is a really puzzling thought.

Baryshnikov contrasts U.S. arts-education funding with that of smaller Western European nations (like Belgium) and state-socialist Central European countries, expressing surprise that the wealthier United States invests comparatively less. The remark implies that public commitment to arts training is not simply a function of national prosperity but of cultural policy and values—whether a society treats the arts as a public good worth sustained support. Coming from a dancer formed within a heavily subsidized Soviet training system and later working in the U.S., the “puzzling” element underscores a perceived mismatch between American resources and institutional priorities, and it implicitly argues that robust arts education requires deliberate, collective investment.