Globally, policymakers, researchers, and educational advocates continue to promote normative neoliberal policies that frame the issue of school readiness through financial terms. Such an interpretation appears to require quantitative research to participate in policy and research conversations around this issue. In this article, I seek to disrupt this policy logic by examining how critical qualitative policy research can study the issue of school readiness and generate policy knowledge to address this complex issue. I also discuss how critical qualitative policy researchers can continue to produce useful knowledge and tangible policies through their work to change the current neoliberal policy world. (author abstract)