An annual rite is in full swing across Texas. College acceptance and rejection notices are flowing into homes, alongside entreaties from private lenders to finance those undergraduate years.

We have no problem with the concept of private student loans. Some students need them to supplement federal or state aid. Otherwise, they couldn't afford college.

But private lending also can come with risks. Big risks. As Holly Hacker reported in this newspaper Sunday, some loans carry interest rates as high as 20 percent.

The terms also vary, leaving some students with big payments years after they graduate. And if they default, many of them will stay on the hook – Washington doesn't back up all private loans.

See any parallel here with the rise in home foreclosures? We do, especially since private loans are an estimated 27 percent of all college lending. Ten years ago, they made up 5 percent.

Given the sharp rise, we hope Congress quickly passes the consumer protections Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat, has drafted. They're part of the larger law governing higher-education spending. Among other things, they would require private lenders to notify universities if they loan a student $1,000 or more.

The University of Texas at Austin's Henry Urich tells us he likes the proposal for that reason. He estimates that 1,500 to 2,000 UT students have private loans. But, like many financial aid officers, he has no way of knowing for sure. The notice would let him and other aid officials alert students about additional options, whether they're federal Stafford loans or the Texas Grant program.

We like putting parameters around private loans for the same reason we liked what Republican Rep. Dan Branch of Dallas did in the Legislature last year. He succeeded in limiting how credit card companies market to college students.

With college getting more costly each year, students and families need all the help they can get. Congress should do its part.