I have a background in education. I've had a unique career that's gone back and forth between engineering and education. I hold graduate degrees in both. I say this only as prologue.

I propose an eInk-based tablet device with both keyboard and stylus input which has network and (very) limited internet access that acts as both a textbook library, note taking device, and can be used to both receive and submit homework

While I agree with most of what you wrote, this part sticks out to me. I think the missing piece in your analysis is the human element, human neurology. The literature that's been coming out in the years since devices were widely deployed has been pretty damning. It's not just that the devices are distraction machines, though they certainly are that. It is that they are fundamentally, neurologically inferior methods of educating a student. It is not simply that computers are distraction engines. You can put two learners in completely distraction free environments, and ask one to learn on a tablet, and one with pencil and paper. Even with no distractions at all, the paper will be far superior.

We are physical embodied beings. A lot of tech folks like to think of themselves as some sort of disembodied soul piloting a meat robot, but that isn't remotely how humans actually work. The body is just as much part of learning as the mind. Your mind is part of your body; and your body heavily influences your mind. Even your gut bacteria have an immense impact on your thought processes. Learning is not a passive process of absorbing information like a sponge. It requires active practice and synthesis, and the more modalities that experience occurs in, the better.

Here is how a traditional lecture works:

1. The teacher speaks orally and writes key notes and diagrams on the board.
2. The students watch, hear, and participate in the discussion.
3. They continually process the lesson and detect the key points.
4. They process the key points and summarize them mentally.
5. They write the key points on paper notes, requiring coordination of the logical, auditory, visual, and motor portions of the brain.
6. They must do this in real time if they want any permanent record of the contents of the lesson.

Here is how an electronic lecture works:

1. Because it's delivered by powerpoints, there's no constraint on the amount of content. Instructors cram too much in the slides for students to ever hope to manually copy during a lecture.
2. Students can't keep up, so they reasonably ask for instructors to post their slides in advance, so students can "follow along."
3. Students watch a lecture with their laptop screen up, passively watching, never needing to write or process anything as they "already have all the notes."
4. If a teacher uses powerpoints of reasonable length, students will still expect slides to be given them in advance, as that's what they're used to in other classes. Even if you can hold firm on this, students will still have woefully underdeveloped note-taking skills, as those skills have been allowed to wither from years of powerpoint instruction.

This is a fundamental problem with the technology. Again, we're embodied creatures. Writing with a pen and paper is more of a full body experience than using a touch screen can ever be. Tech loves to "remove friction," but friction is the only way you ever actually learn anything.

We need to get the computers out of regular classroom instruction entirely. I'm perfectly fine with computers in a lab or library where students take computer-intensive courses (like programming or CAD), but there should be zero electronic devices employed in the lessons of core academic subjects such as mathematics, language, the sciences, and social sciences.