You could be describing Microsoft in 2023, e.g. Chromium-based Edge, Windows 11 start menu ads, Xbox Live background services being integral to Windows even on government/corporate computers, the unholy marriage of Bing & OpenAI, Windows Live ID, outlook.com, every corporation being cool with putting their data into Azure/Office 365, etc.
In my country (and I assume it's similar in others), Microsoft has and traditionally always had schools, hospitals and governments, pretty much the whole public sector in tight grip.
There is a lengthy history behind that which includes numerous reasons.
Parent comment was making the comparison because GP pointed out the absurdity of forcing kids into Google ecosystem and exposing them to data harvesting.
When the original story was about MS and they behave in similar or the same ways, I believe that it's very relevant.
Two wrongs don't make one right though: students at a public school, their data as well as their mindshare, should not mandatorily be sold to the highest/lowest bidder.