Sophia Garcia, a Boston-area student, worked full time, took a full course load to maintain financial aid, and pulled out a loan so she could attend a local private university during the Spring 2021 semester.

Arriving on campus — she declined to say which institution — in January 2021 felt “like the moment my life will begin,” she told a group of rally-goers in front of the State House Wednesday afternoon.

“The university doesn’t know what they did by accepting me. I’m running through all their resources like a tomb raider. Sorry to anybody behind me, because I’m taking it all,” said Garcia, a Revere-raised daughter of immigrants from Ecuador and Puerto Rico.

But by the time April rolled around, Garcia said she did not recognize herself in the mirror. Days were turning into a blur. She was barely sleeping for more than two hours. And she was living off energy drinks and fruit snacks.

Difficulties were arising at work and she started to fall behind on her classes all because of the jam packed schedule she had to maintain just to afford a private university. Eventually, she said, she decided to leave.

And while Garcia later enrolled at Bunker Hill Community College in the fall of 2021, the obstacles she faced in obtaining a higher education degree are not unique.

Garcia, along with advocates with the Higher Education for All Coalition, rallied outside the State House in favor of two bills that would establish minimum funding levels for public higher education, bar tuition increases at public colleges or universities between fiscal 2022 and 2026, and allow Massachusetts students to go to public institutions debt-free.

It comes as funding for and making public higher education more accessible has become a major talking point on Beacon Hill.

Gov. Maura Healey proposed in her fiscal 2023 state budget a plan that would allow adults 25 and older who do not already have a degree or industry certificate to get one for free. The House included a similar proposal in their rewrite of the next fiscal budget.

And lawmakers believe this is the session where higher education bills can take the forefront because of new funding from a voter-approved surtax known as the “Millionaire’s Tax” or “Fair Share Amendment.”

Sen. Jamie Eldridge, an Acton Democrat, said the debt-free proposal would cover eligible students’ tuition, fees, transportation, and cost of some materials. But it comes at a likely cost of “billions” to the state, he said.

“It absolutely has a high price tag,” Eldridge told the Herald after Wednesday’s rally. “But the argument is that with the ‘Millionaire’s Tax,’ is begin investing a part of that and then, you know, so far we’re seeing robust revenues.”

Higher education advocates said funding for community colleges, state universities and the UMass system has declined since 2001, leading to tuition increases, staff reductions, reduced program offerings, and “exploitative use” of part-time staff, adjuncts, and non-tenure-track faculty.

The funding bill, dubbed the “Cherish Act,”  would establish a “fair and adequate” funding level for public higher education at no less than the fiscal 2001 per-student funding level, adjusted for inflation, according to the Higher Education for All Coalition.

The legislation will also push public higher education institutions to improve the physical conditions of their buildings, which have faced chronic disinvestment, according to Nicholas Gula, president of Maintainers AFT Local 6350.

“Who wants to teach, who wants to learn in a place that the water is coming through the ceilings, the roofs are falling apart,” he said outside the State House. “Our buildings are falling apart. The air conditioner is falling apart. That’s not a place conducive to education.”

Both the “Cherish Act” and the debt-free proposal have a long way to go in the Legislature. The two bills are before the Higher Education Committee, which has yet to schedule a hearing on either matter.

As for Garcia, she said she learned over the past few years that “I’m only human.”

“It used to scare me saying that I was only human,” Garcia said. “I understand that I don’t have to be the underdog. I don’t have to defy all odds. I can be the daughter of immigrants and receive help.”