I'm not a teacher, but I'm on my way, and I have to agree with WhiteDaisy. Spending an extra five -- or even twenty -- bucks on school supplies is not going to make that big of a difference to MOST people on this board, but if the teachers have to cover it out of pocket for all the kids in their classes, it's going to make a big difference for them. Furthermore, the alternative is that your child's education is going to suffer. If the kids are going to do a project that involves colored pencils, and not all the kids have colored pencils (and your kid's not sharing!), the project won't happen or will take much longer than it needs to.
It surprises me that, after all the noise made about how our school systems don't even get enough tax money to cover basic supplies, people are still shocked that they can't just give out a pair of scissors and a glue stick to every child walking through the doors.
That said, I think parents should be made aware if their supplies are going to students other than their children. Maybe a compromise would be that, instead of forcing each child to buy two of everything, you could say that one was mandatory (to go towards the "community chest") and one was optional (if you wanted the children to have their own personal supplies.
BUT I disagree with you that say "Why do they have to trick us into donating? I think most people would donate if they made it clear that the supplies were going to kids who needed them." Since that's the way things have been run in the past, obviously it HASN'T worked and they haven't been getting enough donations or things would still be run that way.
It seems to me that the majority of teachers (maybe not so much the ones demanded brand #ABC123 of Fiskars scissors
) are just doing what they need to do to keep doing their job at the level they're supposed to be teaching at.