Meanwhile, the comhairle has delayed introducing its new school transport policy until 25 October.

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Starr had informally told Pepperdine earlier in the month he was no longer prepared to become dean of either its new School of Public Policy or its School of Law.

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"You must sacrifice a little self-interest, support the new high school and obey the policy, " says Xiang Caiguo.

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The new policy will not affect existing school pupils, the council said, and added the money saved would be going back into local education.

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The new identification policy at the Northside Independent School District (NISD) in San Antonio, Texas, began at the start of the 2012 school year.

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Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers, speaking of northern New Jersey's population drop-off.

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In the same month, the Welsh Assembly Government published new guidelines for school governors, saying they should take account of religious views and consider whether uniform policy interfered with the right to manifest a religion or belief.

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Raised in suburban Long Island, Ruddy earned a master's degree in public policy from the London School of Economics, signed on as a journalist first at the New York Post, then as a national correspondent for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, owned by billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife.

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Local school reformers, like Sara Usdin of New Schools for New Orleans, say the challenge is to stay away from policy debates about the merits of charter.

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