Charter schools have been promoted as an equitable and innovative solution to the problems plaguing urban schools. Advocates claim that charter schools benefit working-class students of color by offering them access to a "portfolio" of school choices. In Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space, Kristen Buras presents a very different account. Her case study of New Orleans--where veteran teachers were fired en masse and the nation's first all-charter school district was developed--shows that such reform is less about the needs of racially oppressed communities and more about the...