I’m a teacher but for 5 year olds so I can’t really comment. The only school supplies we ask them to bring is a folder. We used to ask for 2 marble notebooks but even got rid of that.
I do want to say though that the only time we were ever asked for a book fee was in highschool when they gave us textbooks and the fee was refunded to us at the end of every year provided that we returned all our books intact. This was definitely a good way of getting us to treat our things properly.
I like the solution of having the school buy the school supplies and the parents sending in money to cover the cost but I’m sure there would be a parent (atleast one) complaining that this is not acceptable for some reason.
Good luck to all of you mothers though!