The board of trustees cited rising tuition prices, falling enrollment and a change in Pennsylvania law that increased liability exposure and drove up insurance premiums as the reasons behind the decision to close down VFMA, which was founded in 1928, after the 2025-26 academic year, in a statement posted online.
“Together, these factors made the Academy’s future unsustainable,” the statement said.
VFMA trustees said the Valley Forge Military College, which shares the 70-acre Main Line campus with the academy, will remain open. The academy and college have a different set of boards of trustees and leadership, the statement said.
“For nearly 100 years, we have maintained a strong tradition of developing resilient young men of character,” Gray Beck, VFMA’s board chairman, said in a statement. “Despite today’s announcement, the legacy of Valley Forge Military Academy will live on in the thousands of graduates, faculty and staff members and supporters.”
The board of trustees said it will help with cadets transferring to other schools and provide support for faculty and staff.
“We are indebted to the faculty, staff, cadets, and alumni who make Valley Forge Military Academy an incredibly special place,” Beck said in a statement. “The best thing we can do now is to continue and provide as normal an experience as possible this year for the young men we’ve been entrusted to help develop into the leaders of tomorrow.”
The Valley Forge Military Academy was founded nearly a century ago for boys in grades 7-12. Its final graduating class will be its 98th. The final commencement is scheduled for May 30, 2026.
Veronica Hally, whose seventh-grade son is a plebe at the academy, said the news blindsided her. Hally said she’s already planning to mount a challenge to the announced closure.
Neighbors and those with deep connections to VFMA were disappointed to hear the news.
“It makes me sad, really,” Shelly Smallwood of Radnor Township said. “I think it’s a beautiful school. It’s beautiful. I was just talking about it the other day. It’s in the movie ‘Taps.’ Do you remember that? A long time ago.”
The 1981 movie starred Tom Cruise and Sean Penn and was based on the efforts of cadets to reverse the decision to close their military academy. Most of the scenes in the movie were filmed at Valley Forge Military Academy.
Valley Forge has a prominent list of military and political figures who have passed through its halls, including novelist J.D. Salinger, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and retired NFL superstar wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald.
contributed to this report.
