Washington ? In a fight that could affect nearly 1 million poor children, President Bush and Democratic lawmakers are deadlocked about the future of the widely popular Head Start preschool program, and both sides conceded they would not settle their exceptionally loud and angry dispute by today’s deadline.

The partisan stalemate, unprecedented in the 38-year history of the Head Start program, leaves the program in legislative limbo, its mission and future uncertain, as the two sides battle over Bush’s desire to give states control of the program and refocus its currently multifaceted curriculum on literacy.

Advocates of Head Start, including many of those who run the nation’s Head Start centers, have accused Bush of trying to dismantle the $6.6 billion program, a legacy of President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty, and they charged that the administration has tried to bully them into silence.

Bush aides, in turn, said Head Start officials were using “disinformation” to block vital changes and to protect the “fiefdoms” they’ve created with local centers. The dispute has culminated in a bitter fight over this year’s authorization process in Congress, during which the program’s structure will be defined for the next five years.

While disagreements over the program’s curriculum have arisen in the past, lawmakers said they have never missed the deadline for reauthorizing Head Start. Money would still flow to Head Start centers if today’s deadline is missed, but the fate of Head Start could remain uncertain indefinitely.

The House in July approved Bush’s proposal by just one vote, 217-216, after scaling it back to attract votes from those reluctant to support far-reaching changes. For example, sponsors reduced from 50 to eight the number of states that would be given control of Head Start as part of a pilot program.

All eyes are now on the Senate, where key Republicans and Democrats have already declared the House-passed legislation unacceptable. A limited Senate proposal from Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a former education secretary, would designate just 200 Head Start centers nationwide to experiment with state control.

The chief objection to Bush’s plan is that it would give control of Head Start to the states, which are running budget deficits and which critics fear might not be able to maintain funding for both Head Start and their own preschool programs. States would have to maintain Head Start funding levels for at least five years under Bush’s plan, but some note that states have ignored such federal requirements in the past, most recently on the Medicaid program.