[sanddrag]

See if a teacher can do a DonorsChoose project for one, if you don't want to fund it through other means. There's quite a selection through Bestbuy, CDW-G, and now Amazon. Pretty much any laptop these days will do what you need, but keep in mind you may not do only programming on it. I use mine for CAD now and then too, or video projects, or graphic design, etc.

We've sort of standardized on the Acer Travelmate line as a good compromise between features/power and affordability. They're nice (and nice looking) machines that have been good to us. Aside from removing the mild bloatware that comes preinstalled, they've been great. We have 2nd gen and 3rd gen Core i3 processors with 4 gigs of RAM and they're good for all our uses. We also have some 2nd gen Core-i5 HP Probooks (6570b) that are ok, but honestly nothing special. The 7200RPM hard drive is nice I guess, but I had one (of 8) die on me really early on. I do like that they have a hardware DB9 serial port, which is hard to find nowadays.

Get something with Windows 7 is my recommendation. Windows 8 as a matter of personal preference I think is terrible, and is not mainstream yet. It would be a deal-breaker for me. Although, most Windows 8 machines come with Windows 7 downgrade rights.

Whatever you get, make sure it has whatever ports you need, VGA, HDMI, USB, etc. I absolutely HATE my Macbook Pro that has only two USB ports that are so close together you can't even use both at once.