The Trump administration abruptly nixed a $500,000 grant for Common Ground High School’s “Green Jobs Corps” program — throwing 71 teens out of work, and upending an employment-training effort that paid city high schoolers to plant trees and work at farmers markets.
The federal government’s stated justification for the cut was that the grant-funded program promoted “DEI” and “environmental justice,” which run counter to the new administration’s “merit-based” priorities.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and Mayor Justin Elicker joined Common Ground teachers, staff, and students to decry that federal about-face during a Monday morning press conference at the local charter school’s 358 Springside Ave. campus.
The focus of the presser was the defunding of the Green Jobs Corps Workforce Development Program, which Common Ground runs and which is open to high schoolers from across New Haven.
Green Jobs Corps Program Director Crystal Fernandez said that she received a letter from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the end of February formally cancelling the $500,000 grant. That money was awarded by the Biden administration in October 2023 to Common Ground, formally known as New Haven Ecology Project Inc., through the EPA’s Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem Solving grant program.
Fernandez said that the EPA provided “no justification, no warning, no respect for our community” in its cancelling of this $500,000 grant, besides stating that the teen-jobs program is not in line with the Trump administration’s priorities. In particular, the letter accused Common Ground’s job program as promoting “environmental justice” and “DEI,” or diversity equity and inclusion, counter to the agency’s efforts to promote “merit-based” programs.
The letter itself, which can be read in full here, is dated Feb. 21. It was sent by EPA Award Official Arthur Johnson to Joel Tolman, Common Ground’s director of community engagement and outreach.
This grant “provides funding for programs that promote or take part in DEI initiatives or environmental justice initiatives or other initiatives that conflict with the Agency’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in performing our statutory functions; that are not free from fraud, abuse, waste, or duplication; or that otherwise fail to serve the best interests of the United States,” that letter reads. “The grant is therefore inconsistent with, and no longer effectuates, Agency priorities.”
“There is nothing unfair or discriminatory” about the Green Jobs Corps program, Fernandez countered. It paid minimum wage to 71 teens who worked five to ten hours a week planting trees, interning at farmers markets, building out community gardens, studying the ecological health of the West River, and helping the City Plan Department with its Vision 2034 process, among other jobs supporting local environmental nonprofits.
This was “more than just a job,” Common Ground junior Kris Lebron Romero said about their work this school year with Haven’s Harvest, a nonprofit that redirects discarded edible food that would have ended up in the landfill towards hungry New Haveners instead. They said they now aspire to work as a graphic designer supporting nonprofits because of their work at Haven’s Harvest. This job deepened their connection to the community they call home and led them to dream big about their future career.
DeLauro described this $500,000 grant cancellation as part of a broader “illegal effort to steal funds” appropriated by Congress, as perpetrated by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. “The stealing of those funds needs to stop.”
“These cuts are just plain stupid,” added Blumenthal. “This action is stupid and unfair.”
He encouraged the Common Ground students sitting and watching the outdoor press conference to “be angry, get involved, mobilize, organize, go in the streets, knock on doors,” to protest and try to reverse the Trump administration’s funding cuts.
“We need you.”
Fernandez said that, because of the $500,000 grant cut, the Green Jobs Corps program is currently on hold. If the federal government does not reinstate this money, then Common Ground will need to find the funds elsewhere in order to get the program up and running again.
This story was first published March 10, 2025 by the New Haven Independent.