With all the justifiable complaining Hawaii residents must do about the expense of living in the 50th State, now and then it’s a relief to celebrate an area in which they do enjoy a real bargain: its public community colleges.

The reminder of that enviable standing came in the form of a report from the Institute for Research on Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.

The University of Hawaii’s community college system ranked as the most affordable public two-year institution in the nation, according to the report. That has value in itself, but it needs to be compounded by programs to improve the proportion of students who finish at least an associate’s degree.

The national analysis was especially thorough, basing the ranking on what students and their families earn as a realistic measure of what they can afford to pay for an education after high school.

Overall, Hawaii ranked third in the U.S. for the affordability of tuition. That metric bolsters the broad argument that modest increases in tuition over time represent reasonable policy for the UH Board of Regents to help offset the taxpayers’ share of costs for the whole university system.

But more specifically, care should be taken to preserve the community colleges as an affordable onramp to career readiness for Hawaii’s future workforce.

Last fall, more than 30,000 students enrolled in the UH system of seven community colleges; that’s 54 percent of the students attending the entire system of 10 campuses. Hawaii residents who attended full-time paid $1,512 per semester and $3,024 a year. Roughly 13 percent of household income would be required to pay the bill, according to the report, which used 2013 income figures.

Community colleges can be a viable option for those whose academic progress through high school is already on par. Many of the core requirements of a four-year degree can be fulfilled at a fraction of the per-credit charges at a four-year campus. This can provide a substantial savings for students before transfer to a baccalaureate university to complete their degrees.

Accessibility to junior colleges can preserve the option of a bachelor’s degree for students who never saw themselves as college-bound but may find their bearings during these exploratory two years.

But principally the function of a community college is to give students the training they need to pursue employment that pays far better than what they could earn with a high school graduate’s entry-level job.

These include a range of vocational programs, in industrial, technical and health care professions. In order to secure the jobs, though, the colleges need more of their students to finish.

Hawaii P-20, a statewide coalition that works to strengthen the education pipeline from early childhood through higher education, demonstrates how far there is to go. Its data show that out of every 100 ninth-graders, 41 will start college, but only 26 will continue to Year 2.

Hawaii’s public high schools already are laying the groundwork for improvement, with programs allowing high school students to begin earning college credits before earning their diplomas. Such programs should be replicated at as many schools as possible.

A high school diploma simply won’t lead any longer to employment that pays a decent wage. By 2020, 70 percent of jobs in Hawaii will require some kind of postsecondary credential, according to the report. And as of 2014, 41 percent of young adults (ages 25-34) and 45 percent of working-age adults (35-64) had an associate’s degree or higher.

That’s a fair slice of the population, but if Hawaii is to meet its college- and career-readiness goals for its next generation, it needs to grow even more. It’s encouraging to know that for most working families in Hawaii, those are goals that won’t break the household budget.