Heck, it reminds me of my last job where I had to wear an electronic co-tag to enter the building. It would open/unlock doors to the building, floors, labs, (and in some cases, elevators) but could also be used to log when I came and left work, my floor, etc. My actual office itself used a metal key (but once in there, the network administrator could see everything on my networked computer desktop).
It's good (for tracking students) but bad because it conditions them to a lifetime of such monitoring both public and private. Also, if the students are not tracked after they leave the bus (or while waiting for it), this would seem to serve protection for the school to say "the buck never got here" or "I got him/her there safely, it's out of MY hands" (C.Y.A.).
They are slowly chipping away at the resistance. The soviet union pushed too hard too quickly.
Like the old boiling the frog analogy. If you throw a frog in to hot water, it will try to escape, but warm it up slowly and the from will gradually adjust.
Either way, our frogs will all be cooked!