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I have a sort of 'out there' suggestion for you. Kobo (in Canada) is a smaller outfit and their WiFi model (while still a tad glitchy for some) is great and affordable. I've owned one for almost a year now. Kobo's customer support has been quite disappointing at times (but no different than most) - a real challenge for them (this is what happens when you sell a lot, but haven't hired enough people to support the product), but they are improving and hiring more support staff every day.
The Kobo ereaders will allow your students to borrow library books, purchase books, access WiFi - plus access some really cool new features of social eReading that Kobo has developed (called 'Pulse' - which connects readers via Facebook to share ideas and notes). The Kobo touch would probably be better for your students (since it has more features than the WiFi model), but it's a bit pricier...
Although they don't ship to you, you COULD ask a favour of one of their product guys that lurks the Kobo forum and helps out users quite a bit. He just helped me with a problem I had with an order. I think this area is something he could help out with - maybe requesting to make an exception to ship to you; maybe offering a bulk discount. I am not sure how it would affect the warranty (if they normally don't ship to you), but it doesn't hurt to ask! He is 'JCKobo' here on Mobile Read (see the Kobo forums for some of his recent posts). I think he's involved in product marketing/support/customer service, so he could potentially help you - or at least point you to someone that may be able to help. PM him - he's reponding to PMs today!
Good luck!!!
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