With 94,863 mainly online students across the United States, Bridgepoint Education grossed more than a billion in 2011 with $172.8 million net income. And, that net is up 375% from 2010’s net of “just” $46 million.However, according to the San Diego Free Press, 84% of paying students drop out prior to graduation from Bridgepoint’s two-year associate degree programs. While this is a completely reasonable churn rate for online subscription content, we suspect it’s unusually high for college degree programs, proving that online education is more similar to other online content than it is to offline education.Unfortunately for online education marketers, replacing drop-out students with fresh ones may soon depress the bottom line. U.S. Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) has introduced a bill to prohibit for-profit universities from using federal aid for marketing, advertising or student recruitment, including telemarketing. Frankly, this sounds like common sense – how many industries get federal aid for their acquisition campaigns after all? Given how profitable Bridgepoint is currently, we think they’ll survive the hit, although 2012 may be the last year with double-digit profits.