Pell-grant share is not a quality signal in either direction on its own. A community college with a high Pell-grant share is, by construction, an institution whose student body skews toward lower-income households; many of the strongest transfer pipelines in the country run through institutions with high Pell shares. What a high Pell share does reliably indicate is where institutional services such as emergency aid, child-care subsidies, food pantries, and need-based scholarships are most likely to be developed and well-resourced.
If you are Pell-eligible, several of the community colleges listed in each state guide below will be tuition-free for you after the grant is applied, with state and institutional aid often covering most of the remaining cost of attendance. File the FAFSA as early as possible — it determines eligibility for the Pell Grant and for most other federal and state need-based aid.
Use the per-state Pell guide alongside the matching cost & aid guide and transfer-outcomes guide for a fuller picture of affordability and outcomes at any given institution.