Someone needs an Apple ID. It doesn't necessarily have to be the student. In fact, most educational deployments probably have the device locked down to keep students from downloading apps.
Even then -- creating an Apple ID is quite a different matter from (potential) ongoing tracking of a user's online activity.
You could say the same for Chromebooks. It does not need to be the ID from student, the school can create a throwaway account and give the password for the student.
If the problem is privacy, the only acceptable option would be a Linux distro properly optimized for school kids. The problem is, it needs to have a nice dashboard for administration since Chromebooks are popular in schools thanks to the ease of administration (most schools can't afford to maintain seasoned SysOps). AFAIK, nobody is working in this kind of product right now, so Linux distros are not the answer either.
