Key facts
- Higher Ground Education, operator of Guidepost Montessori schools, collapsed with over $440 million in operating losses.
- The company defaulted on loans and lost nearly all of its 150-plus schools to foreclosure.
- Higher Ground Education filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2025.
- A liquidating plan confirmed in November 2025 offers general unsecured creditors less than eleven cents on the dollar.
- The company raised over $335 million in funding from 2020 onward, including a $30 million Series D in April 2021.
- Approximately $50 million was raised through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa program.
Higher Ground Education, a company that aimed to make Montessori education globally accessible, has collapsed under more than $440 million in operating losses. Founded in 2016 by Ray and Rebecca Girn, the company operated the Guidepost Montessori school network, the Academy of Thought and Industry, and the Prepared Montessorian Institute. By 2024, the network had grown to over 150 school locations.
Despite aggressive expansion, Higher Ground Education never achieved positive cash flow, with monthly corporate costs alone running about $2.5 million. The company's business model relied on continuous outside investment, but prospective investors grew wary of the company's negative cash flows and large debt load. In early 2025, Higher Ground defaulted on several secured loans after failing to secure refinancing or new capital.
This led to a rapid series of foreclosures. In March 2025, secured lender WTI foreclosed on its collateral and sold substantially all of the company's intellectual property and numerous schools to Guidepost Global Education, Inc. for approximately $23.08 million. Additional foreclosures followed in April 2025 when Learn Capital and Yu Capital entities seized further school assets.
Higher Ground Education filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2025. A liquidating plan was confirmed by a federal bankruptcy judge in November 2025, leaving general unsecured creditors with an estimated recovery of less than eleven cents on the dollar. The company raised over $335 million in funding from 2020 onward and approximately $50 million through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa program.