I find this quite worrying. How does a new parent know the ability of the coach to actually teach skating?
The PSA and USFSA (also called USFS) have "Ratings" and "Rankings" systems. Those are supposed to fill that need.
But the main way to judge a teacher in any field has always been to watch them teach, and to ask other people for their opinions - in this case to ask good skaters. You don't need to know the subject to judge teaching effectiveness. It's also not hard to find a good figure skater - just look for speed, grace, and control.
I think that someone who plans to be a high level competitive skater should be taught by someone who is very good, more or less from the start, so they don't get bad habits.
But most people just casually come to rinks to have a little fun. The main thing for them is to be safe, stop being afraid of simple things, and to understand the basics. Just as you don't need to be a certified school teacher or a Nobel prize winner to teach an academic subject, you don't need to be a high level athlete to teach entry level athletics to the masses. Some of the best people in both academic and athletic fields turn out to be poor teachers, or only understand how to teach a small subset of students.
Some of your fellow students, who learned yesterday what you are trying to learn today, are far better at teaching it than most of those with high formal qualifications.I'd like to think that I am good at teaching what I know, better than many of those with higher qualifications. I also know where my limits are, and wouldn't wouldn't mis-represent myself as a high level skater. If a student was likely to go past those limits any time soon, I would of course advise him or her to find a teacher with better skating skills, but who is still a good teacher for the student's individual learning style.
I have known for some time that teaching figure skating for money was impractical for most skaters, because there were a lot of barriers to entry. I just wondered whether the registration of us volunteers as USFSA BS Instructors would make a difference. But there are still a lot of barriers to entry. No big surprise: All certification programs exist mainly to make money for those who certify, but also to maintain higher pay rates for those that have the resources to get past the barriers, by keeping out the masses.