The high-quality development of preschool education is essential for advancing a nation committed to educational excellence. To foster such development, it is crucial to define the key elements and overcome institutional barriers. This paper examines the theoretical, policy, and practical dimensions of high-quality preschool education, emphasizing inclusiveness, accessibility, supportability, adaptability, and sustainability as core values. Despite progress, there remains a significant gap between current preschool education practices and high-quality standards, primarily due to limitations in the management system, funding mechanisms, and administrative structures. This paper argues for deepening systemic and mechanistic reforms in preschool education by maintaining a “child-centered, public-welfare-oriented” approach, while adhering to region-specific, gradual reforms. The reform strategy advocates for a “primarily state-run (government dominant)” management system with provincial and municipal planning and county-level implementation, an optimized financial input mechanism involving multiple stakeholders and government levels and a working mechanism prioritizing standards and evaluation-based quality assurance. These efforts aim to bridge existing gaps and accelerate the high-quality development of preschool education in China.