What about something like, let's say, a kindle made for school, which stores the student's textbooks and readings. I'd think that this would be a much better alternative since it has limited use to begin with.
That's feasible, but schools are too interested in looking "modern" and "sleek" by using Apple devices, so they won't use Kindle because its interoperability with Apple devices is not as good as something like iBooks. Part of it is a ploy to impress parents, part of it is just the "because we can" attitude of the administration.