The tension here is that educational achievement is a proxy measurement for IQ and in capitalist societies IQ is directly correlated with income. The cultural ideal here in the US is that hard work, effort, and grit is what is necessary for success. It is supposed to be purely egalitarian; you get what you give. However whether you are born with a high IQ is purely random, and even worse IQ is heritable. This is creating a technocracy which is at odds with the egalitarian ideal. This along with the expanding wealth gap is causing the schism you see today.
I mean they are completely different measures. They both contribute to success but can be tested independantly.
Also assuming that "capacity and willingness to do hard work" is a personality trait, that is also largely random. So no matter which way you slice it, you gotta get lucky on either the intelligence or industriousness axes (or both) to be successful.
Who you are born as is random, but who will have children with higher IQ is not. Work ethic is less nature and more nurture than IQ, or at least feels that way intuitively.
High IQ by itself doesn't get rewarded very much without hard work, effort, and grit. If you have all of that, yes you'll be rewarded more than others who lack one or more of those qualities. And you should be.
