They made our parents buy us our own supplies and the only thing they gave us were borrowed textbooks from the 80s with taped spines.
They made my generation's parents buy supplies too. But it was a super short list, barely more than paper, pencils, pens, crayons, scissors and a ruler. And there was no mandatory quantity, you were simply expected to have enough to get you through the day every day. Your parents wanted to buy a single pack of paper or could afford only a single pack, that was cool until the next paycheck. Even in high school a calculator of any kind was optional and not mandatory. Trapper Keepers were the cool thing, but the cheapest plastic binder was perfectly fine, as long as it held your papers and you found a way to keep your classes separated. You didn't even need separators if you found another method. And no, my generation did not ride dinosaurs to school, I'm pretty young.
I was told by someone older than me that the original modern laws for schools had the schools providing all supplies, and the only reason it's being ignored is partially because of under-funding and partially because taking money from that requirement paid for optional stuff like higher salaries and sports.
Edit: I just tracked down the local supply lists. Barely more than pens, pencils, a binder (yes, one), dividers, spiral notebooks, scissors, glue, a calculator and colored pencils/markers. Heck, pencils didn't even give a quantity, just "enough to last all year". If the local schools can bare bones it and thrive, then why do other areas (like the city I came from that lists Clorox and baby wipes) need so very much more?