Certification is a joke. It stands as a barrier to otherwise competent people who might provide competition to the "certified ones." I'm not "certified" in math, but I can assure you that no "certified" math teacher scored higher on his/her Math SAT than I did, and most of them probably didn't come within 200 points of my score on the "Advanced Math" (As it was called in the 60s) test. Am I looking for a teaching job? No. But it might be nice to be able to teach for a couple of hours a day when I retire. The current system makes that almost impossible.
ML/NJ
You are right about the certification. I didn't mean teacher certification. I meant that teachers of middle school math don't have a math degree.