The rate at which borrowers default on their federally guaranteed student loans has declined to 4.6 percent, in part because of a record number of consolidations, the Education Department announced last week. "Borrowers took advantage of the opportunity to lock in record-low interest rates by consolidating their federal student loans," the department said in a written statement. The decline in the default rate for the 2005 fiscal year also was due in part to the number of forbearances and deferments granted to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Education Department said in its statement. The department granted six months of forbearance to federal-student-loan borrowers directly affected by the hurricanes. Some student advocates are skeptical of the numbers citing a December 2003 report by the department's own inspector general that concluded that the percentages measured by the department, known as the cohort default rate, may not reflect actual default trends over the long term.