This article analyzes U.S. Department of Education data on appropriations on Pell Grants using the new Mission-Driven Classification (MDC) to disaggregate enrollment, finance, and need-based Pell Grant data by major public higher education sector and, within community colleges, by geography (rural, suburban, and urban) as well as by the presence or lack of local funding. Three key takeaways from The University of Alabama's Education Policy Center's (UA/EPC) 20 studies of federal Pell Grants since 2011 are: first, the best way to keep college affordable and debt manageable is to avoid large debt in the first place; second, for students to graduate, they first must be enrolled; and third, the millions of needy students and our nation's 951 U.S. community colleges that serve them deserve stable, sustainable Pell funding. Since the Great Recession, volatile Pell Grant program funding has shown the federal government to be an unreliable partner for states and institutions to deliver the promise of access and completion. The authors' analysis uses Average Pell -- the dollars actually received -- that students, families, and financial aid counselors use to assess affordability. Average Pell can help to show the interplay between state policies (community college operating budgets cuts, higher tuition) and federal policies (volatile increases and deep cuts in the Pell program) to assess their impact on student access. Whether it be through a new matching program, as proposed by the Bipartisan Policy Council, or through other means, stable, sustainable funding to help academically-talented, economically disadvantaged students attend and complete postsecondary education is clearly an essential American imperative.