The computers at my school are also locked down to the point of uselessness. I have to bring my own laptop every day I need to do any sort of programming, which isn't an option for a lot of people.
Mine had 1 classroom devoted to computer classes. These computers were Windows NT workstations. Students logged in with normal accounts (not administrators) but there were no other restrictions.
That isn't to say that they didn't lock down any computers. They did. The library computers were essentially chrome books. All you could do was run IE and Word.