Allentown school superintendent Diane Scott was criticized after she took a $2,000 junket to Puerto Rico in the middle of the winter in order to recruit Spanish-speaking teachers for the city's bilingual-education programs. Mayor William Heydt called the visit, which garnered no teachers, "frivolous," and noted that Allentown did not have the money to compete with other school districts, such as New York City's, which sends representatives to Puerto Rico offering bounties to potential bilingual teachers. (The practice is the focus of some resentment in Puerto Rico, which is often forced to recruit teachers unable to pass mainland credentials tests.)

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