Any time you put up a policy idea - free public college for all! - people on The Left and The Right will question it. Wouldn't universal free pre-K be better, liberal??? This is mostly a gift to the middle class!!! How about affordable housing??? I don't mean this as a Both Sides thing. From The Left you can get a genuine desire to help the less fortunate more than the reasonable fortunate. From The Right is is just classic concern trolling - trying to disrupt the whole thing. You claim to care about the poor, eh liberal? Why do you want this 4-year-old to not have schooling so the children of rich people can go to Kabumfuck State Community College for free???
The first point is that these are not deals that are on the table. There's no poll we all get to take to decide whether free college or universal pre-K is the nice thing we're going to have this year.
The second point is that there's no reason to pit these things against each other. How about, um, both? As for tradeoffs, would you like to spend money on a plane that can't fly in the rain or free college??? I'll take option B.
There's always a better more progressive idea, always someone more in need. Implement good ideas when they do actually appear to be on the table. Work to getting other better ideas on the table, too..