Article One, Section Eight of the US Constitution......

Technicly it doesn't say anything about it. though many are using the "common welfare" terminology to justify it. I am not totaly oposed to a national healthcare option IF it does not interfere with the rest of the constitution, isn't forced on us, is reasonable, can be paid for and does not effect the quaility and availability of said healthcare and most important, as long as it is run by PEOPLE I TRUST. One other thing to look out for is for them to start using the old "interstate commerce clause" trick. They use this as a fall back for nearly any unconstitutional action they want to impose on the state. They twist it, turn it and reinterpret it 6 ways from sunday to use it as an excuse for another power grab. As to the rest of your post, the constitution is still taught, but it seems the emphasis on it's importance and the deeper meaning and spirit of it is lost these days.

I wasn't required to know anything about the policies, documents, or government of the United States until my senior year in high school, under the title Civics. With some of us 16-19 years in age, able to vote in some cases, or quite close to that age, it is a travesty that we were not taught sooner, and given a deeper understanding of the processes involved in our government and its laws and elections! I have studied more in the last decade about what the laws say and the Constitution allows specifically than I ever learned earlier in my life, but that is because our way of life has been threatened more from within this country than from without. The government has no say or role in health-care, and it is not to be taken over by the government on a mandatory basis, either! We, the People, are the Constitution, and we had better stand against this tide of socialism and tyranny by our government! As to the military, we swore an oath of allegiance to defend the United States (the country and People), and the Constitution, and very specifically to obey the orders of the President and/or Governor (as long as the order is legal by the UCMJ).

If our elected officials make fun of and demean people who expect them (or their staffs) to actually read the bills they "support", how do we imagine they give a flying fig about reading the US Constitution. It is only when We the People put their feet to the proverbial fire that they bother acknowledging out existence, much less the Founding Fathers and our National Documents.

I had to pass that test as well, along with a test of our State Constitution. If schools are not teaching it these days, it is simply because the schools want people to be ignorant of the Constitution and what it says.