If you want to put Federal money into pre-school education, why not a voucher system? Then parents could choose which schools their children attend. Maybe their own church, a Montessori, or a Waldorf school.
Actually, the problem is that the children whose parents would go to the trouble to sign up for vouchers, and research and enroll them in private schools, probably don't need the preschool education anyway. They probably are already being read to at home, and they probably already know their colors, shapes, numbers, and letters.
The children who really need this sort of program unfortunately have parents who don't know how to do sign up for & research private schools and/or can't be bothered to do so....which is probably why the children are so behind educationally to begin with.
Sort of a Catch-22. How do you fix it?