U.S. Seeks Refund for Deadbeat Students : Finances: Department of Education demands $49 million. Officials say California isn’t aggressive enough in collecting unpaid college loans.

Accusing the state of not being aggressive enough with deadbeat ex-students, U.S. education officials are demanding a $49-million refund from California for failure to collect on thousands of federally insured college loans, The Times has learned.

The U.S. Department of Education requested the refund in March from the California Student Aid Commission, the agency charged with making the collections.

David A. Longanecker, an assistant secretary in the federal education department, sent letters to Gov. Pete Wilson and California congressional leaders last month informing them of the refund demand.

“When we have warning signals, we are trying to let significant people know so they can get control of the situation before it gets out of hand,” Longanecker said. Similar refund demands have been made to aid commissions in Nebraska and Virginia, he said.

He said the state agency has not been willing to correct its problems and continuing audits indicate that the federal government could increase its refund demand to $95 million.

The federal government’s actions come after audits raised questions about whether the obscure state agency has made enough phone calls or sent enough collection letters to former students who have defaulted on their loans since 1988.

A spokesman for the State Aid Commission disputed the allegations, saying they were based on questionable or preliminary audit findings. He said the agency is appealing the unprecedented demand for a refund and did not expect the state to pay any of the amount.

The spokesman emphasized that if the state were forced to make payment to the federal government, the money would not come from the state treasury but from a $350-million fund of federal money and student loan fees.

The California Student Aid Commission, run by a 15-member board of political appointees, awards $200 million in state grants each year and serves as guarantor in the federal student loan program.

Under the federal program, private lenders make the loans, but the commission swings into action once a former student defaults. After paying off the lender, the agency must try to collect on the debt before seeking reimbursement from the federal government.

The commission spokesman said the average California college loan is $2,625 per year, and the agency guarantees more than $1.2 billion annually. As of June, 1992, about 12% of the $6.2 billion worth of matured loans have gone into default, he said.

U.S. Department of Education regulations require the commission to make repeated telephone calls and send at least three letters to each student within 180 days of a default. The commission, which farms out the work to collection agencies, is also supposed to report the default to national credit bureaus and can file a civil suit to recover the debt.

But several audits indicate that since 1988, the commission has not tried hard enough to recover the money. Federal officials cited in particular a state auditor general report that criticized the commission for lax collection efforts in 1989-90.

Out of 44 loans examined, the auditor general discovered that the commission and its designated collection agencies failed to make phone calls or send letters to 19 borrowers. Of those, seven had previous college loans on which they had also defaulted, the audit showed.

Federal officials based their refund demand largely on the auditor general report, but commission officials say the sample of 44 loans shows a distorted picture of how they handle defaults.