Education Secretary Arne Duncan was in New York Tuesday, visiting two Brooklyn charter schools with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as the city vies for millions of dollars in federal education dollars.

Education officials from the Department of Education and individual schools have applied for a chunk of about $650 million from the federal Investing in Innovation Fund. The DOE is looking to score $50 million to be used to open 150 small middle and high schools over the next five years, including 40 charter schools -- with the aim of creating environments that better prepare students for college.

The creation of more charter schools hinges on the State Assembly, which has not passed a bill to lift the current state cap.

That, among other things, led to the state to miss out on some $700 million in federal funds from the Race to the Top Competition.

"And the charter cap is one reason why New York State missed out on the first round of the funding earlier this year. With our schools facing big budget cuts this year we just can't afford to hundreds of millions of dollars in education aid sitting on the table," said the mayor.

"Where there's good charter schools, where there's real accountability, where you replicate success and not tolerate failure that's a piece of the equation. Not the silver bullet, not the only answer but that's a piece of the answer," Duncan said.

The new Race to the Top application is due on June 1.

Duncan was also in town as part of a push on Congress to pass funding to prevent teacher layoffs across the nation.